Speaker 1: This is the Patriots Catch twenty two podcasts with Evan
Speaker 1: Lazar and Alex Bars.
Speaker 2: And Lazarre.
Speaker 3: Hello, everybody nailed it. Joined us always by our bar.
Speaker 3: Here is Evan Lazar and Alex Bars. Back from vacation
Speaker 3: and back to Patriots training camp.
Speaker 1: And this is back from vacation. First off of congratulations
Speaker 1: you and Jesson as all the pleasantes. Meanwhile, I am
Speaker 1: over here. I remain married to the game another word
Speaker 1: for single, I'm to the game. I somehow missed that
Speaker 1: little quick from you last week.
Speaker 3: Ow mean, I cracked myself up. Sometimes I gotta give
Speaker 3: myself credit for that one. That was at least making
Speaker 3: somebody laugh. Okay, fair enough, you know listen, I like
Speaker 3: I always say, you missed one hundred percent of the
Speaker 3: shots you don't take. So some of my jokes don't land,
Speaker 3: some of them do. That one was kind of funny.
Speaker 3: I'll give myself credit for that one. So Evin Lazard
Speaker 3: is Alex Bars Patriots Cash twenty two with you for
Speaker 3: the next hour or so. You know, we tend to ramble,
Speaker 3: so it might be a little bit over the hour,
Speaker 3: but we'll see how long we go here today. But
Speaker 3: a lot to talk about a lot of positives to
Speaker 3: talk about it, like, we're not just this is look
Speaker 3: on Tuesday, Alex, you know I was texting you about
Speaker 3: it during practice.
Speaker 1: So it's not like you were texting about it during practice.
Speaker 3: You can just doubt me about this. I'm going to
Speaker 3: own this. I'm soar.
Speaker 1: We were getting to a point on Tuesday where, yeah,
Speaker 1: the offense was a little stagnant and you know, they
Speaker 1: were still working through some things. Evan texts me and
Speaker 1: goes in so many words, he's worried. He is worried
Speaker 1: about the offense. Worried literally since the snap after that text, Yep,
Speaker 1: it's all because of me. They have been locked it.
Speaker 1: Like I think I literally sent you a text back
Speaker 1: after that. Well that was a good throw and it
Speaker 1: was I think the mac Jones touchdown, the Jujus and
Speaker 1: the Schuster in the back of the end zone. Yeah,
Speaker 1: ever since you sent that text, you fixed the offense
Speaker 1: With that text.
Speaker 3: You're giving me credit.
Speaker 1: We might have to get well, just he did it,
Speaker 1: you guys. Well, but then Bill O'Brien it was me.
Speaker 1: But then the next day they got off to a
Speaker 1: little bit of a slow start. You texted me again
Speaker 1: and then mac Jones said his best practice he's had
Speaker 1: since the Giants practice is rookie year.
Speaker 2: Yea.
Speaker 1: So just keep sending the texts. Okay, that's what it
Speaker 1: comes down to. This whole season comes down to, Well,
Speaker 1: Evan keeps sending those texts.
Speaker 3: There we go. So we'll lay this out and exactly
Speaker 3: go into a little bit more detail here, but I'd
Speaker 3: also just want to do some housekeeping. Shout out Marine
Speaker 3: behind the glass with us as always, and Zach is
Speaker 3: with us here today with Alex that he's shadowing our Alex,
Speaker 3: not this Alex today for the day. And Zach, you
Speaker 3: have one of the coolest stories I think anybody can
Speaker 3: tell other than you go into training camp every day
Speaker 3: like a psycho since you were like two years old
Speaker 3: or something like that. But we came back last year
Speaker 3: from the Buffalo road game and the Patriots did not
Speaker 3: have such a good day that day, and we're all
Speaker 3: coming back on the team buses and we see a
Speaker 3: son and a father holding a sign that says thank
Speaker 3: yous as we're pulling into Gillette and all of us
Speaker 3: on the content bus. We don't mingle. We don't get
Speaker 3: to mingle with the coaches and players. We have our
Speaker 3: own separate bus, and all of us in the content
Speaker 3: bus were like, wow, that's that's so cool, Like to
Speaker 3: who is that? We tried, you know, we obviously dug
Speaker 3: up who it was. Alex wrote a story about it,
Speaker 3: and it was Zach and his father that came out
Speaker 3: even it was what like twenty degrees, it was late
Speaker 3: at night. They did not win the game. They did
Speaker 3: not make the playoffs, as we all know, and he's
Speaker 3: been doing that though, are Alex talking to you now?
Speaker 3: Since for years super Bowl champs or not even making
Speaker 3: the playoffs at eight and nine, him and his dad
Speaker 3: come out every year and hold up the signs and
Speaker 3: welcome the team back from whatever their final game of
Speaker 3: the year is. So that's really really cool. I think
Speaker 3: it's awesome just to see somebody that fair Weather not
Speaker 3: here right Like, it doesn't matter if they're winning the
Speaker 3: super Bowl or they're coming in what third place in
Speaker 3: the division and I'm making the playoffs. We don't need
Speaker 3: to talk about too much about that. But let's get
Speaker 3: back to training camp. Shout out Zach, and thanks for
Speaker 3: hanging with us today. But I want to get into
Speaker 3: camp a little bit. And you mentioned my texts and
Speaker 3: my negativity about the offense on Tuesday and the place
Speaker 3: that I was coming from with the offense. And I
Speaker 3: understand where I went wrong, right, I understand where what
Speaker 3: I missed, But.
Speaker 1: Sure, I'm not going to ride the roller coaster of
Speaker 1: training camp.
Speaker 3: Here we are, We're on, We're on Superman at six
Speaker 3: Flags right now. The main thing that I was frustrated
Speaker 3: with was the missed opportunities or the meat left on
Speaker 3: the bone I thought from that practice and as.
Speaker 1: Good as in terms of like taking completions but not
Speaker 1: pushing the ball right and so I can name specific places,
Speaker 1: which you know at the time was a fair assessment.
Speaker 3: The main thing was is that I felt like a
Speaker 3: lot of people and I'm not calling anybody out, I
Speaker 3: just want to be honest. I felt like a lot
Speaker 3: of people were gassing up a lot of short completions
Speaker 3: and checked down by Mac Jones and we tear about
Speaker 3: these training camp stats and we here after practice Mac
Speaker 3: Jones finished the day eight for ten and team drills
Speaker 3: and that eighty percent completion rate. That sounds incredible. But
Speaker 3: what I'm more concerned about is one, is he running
Speaker 3: into play properly? Of course, is the biggest thing, at
Speaker 3: least as far as I can tell. And two, how
Speaker 3: difficult are the throws? How much is he pushing himself
Speaker 3: and pushing the team, Because the main thing is is
Speaker 3: that does call spade to spade. They don't have a
Speaker 3: great offensive line right now, and they might not have
Speaker 3: a great offensive I think it's going to be better
Speaker 3: than what we've seen at practice when Mike on Winne,
Speaker 3: you and Cole Strange come back.
Speaker 1: They only have two projected starters right now.
Speaker 3: And I don't really know how good this group is
Speaker 3: going to be in general, even on paper if everybody's healthy.
Speaker 3: We've had concerns about the line all off season, mainly
Speaker 3: at tackle, which right now and we'll get to in
Speaker 3: a little bit more detail, Connor McDermott. It looks like
Speaker 3: he's kind of locked up the right tackle job eight
Speaker 3: practices into camp, and as much as I have been
Speaker 3: impressed by what I've seen out of Connor McDermott, I'm
Speaker 3: not so sure that's a great thing that Connor McDermott
Speaker 3: is the best tackle that you have to start on
Speaker 3: the right side opposite Trent Brown. So I think the
Speaker 3: main thing was is that you have an so so
Speaker 3: offensive line. I think you have average skill players. I
Speaker 3: think the skill players are okay. I don't think they're great.
Speaker 3: I don't think they're an elite, but I think they're okay.
Speaker 1: And I think I'm good. And guys, all the skill
Speaker 1: players are gonna factor in Hunter Henry, We're gonna factor
Speaker 1: understy Good. I don' know, they're great, They're good, They're good,
Speaker 1: They're fine, They're good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And we looked at that practice on Tuesday, and
Speaker 3: that was the first time where things started to kind
Speaker 3: of show signs that things were clicking and guys were
Speaker 3: starting to get open a little bit more and more
Speaker 3: down the field, which is something that has been a
Speaker 3: problem through five camp practices. And all of the sudden,
Speaker 3: Mac Jones is kind of missing some throws and everybody's
Speaker 3: writing about, Oh, it was this great practice, and I'm
Speaker 3: thinking to myself, like he threw in seven on seven,
Speaker 3: Juju Smith Schuster was open on a corner route and
Speaker 3: the ball hung up in the air and Marcus Jones
Speaker 3: nearly picked it off. Juju had to play defense, right,
Speaker 3: Juju became the defensive back, knock it out to knock
Speaker 3: it out of out of Marcus Jones' hands. Later on,
Speaker 3: when they got into eleven on eleven's he had Gasiki
Speaker 3: open on a crosser and he short armed it and
Speaker 3: Mac Wilson broke up the pass, and these types of
Speaker 3: things were happening throughout the practice. I have a high
Speaker 3: standard for the quarterback. If there are open receivers down
Speaker 3: the field, I expect Mac Jones to make the throws.
Speaker 1: And that's that's a fair expectation.
Speaker 3: And I didn't feel like he did that on Tuesday. Now,
Speaker 3: what I missed, and this is maya kolpa here, what
Speaker 3: I missed is that I should have recognized that the
Speaker 3: receivers were actually getting open, right right, like the offense
Speaker 3: was actually starting to find a rhythm and starting to click.
Speaker 3: And then the last thing that sort of needed to
Speaker 3: come along was the timing and the ball placement and
Speaker 3: working out really the finer details of these sort of things.
Speaker 3: And just as an example on that Kasiki play, I
Speaker 3: saw Mac kind of signal with his hand afterwards about
Speaker 3: potentially Gisicki drifting a little bit upfield, a further upfield
Speaker 3: than he thought. So what I missed on Tuesday was
Speaker 3: that that was a stepping stone to what we saw
Speaker 3: the last two.
Speaker 1: Days and can I tell you what I think may
Speaker 1: have helped with that. As crazy as this sounds, and
Speaker 1: this is classic training camp, We're going to take one
Speaker 1: play and blow it up into something bigger. But so
Speaker 1: this was again kind of right after you sent me
Speaker 1: that text about you know, Max maybe missing some of
Speaker 1: these guys further down the field, he threw that deep
Speaker 1: ball to Kendrick porn. It was I mean, it was
Speaker 1: not complex. It was Kendrick Porne ran a straight line,
Speaker 1: ran by the corner. I want to say it was
Speaker 1: Jalen Mills. I don't remember who it was.
Speaker 3: No, it was wait wait just what play was it?
Speaker 1: Discontinue over the go ball to to Kendrick Bourne that
Speaker 1: Mac like launched out oh yeaheah. And I mean again, no,
Speaker 1: nothing sexy, no intense concept. It was go run. He
Speaker 1: ran by the corner and Mac threw a deep to
Speaker 1: him and he missed him by about like a step,
Speaker 1: like overthrew him by about the steps. Talk about that
Speaker 1: in a second, but yeah, on it so that after
Speaker 1: so you're texting, it's all checkdowns and you were right,
Speaker 1: and then that happened, and then all of a sudden
Speaker 1: he starts mixing in a lot more of this intermediate stuff.
Speaker 1: I almost feel like that was a moment where maybe
Speaker 1: he took the deep shot and it was incomplete, but
Speaker 1: he was like he was open, like this is gonna work.
Speaker 1: I have a chance to make these plays. Let's try
Speaker 1: that again, because that seemed to kind of even though
Speaker 1: it was incomplete, it seemed to unlock something. Yeah, I total,
Speaker 1: although you sound less thrilled with that play, I am less.
Speaker 3: Thrilled of it with that play, but not because I
Speaker 3: disagree with your point. The main point that I when
Speaker 3: I looked at that throw to Kendrick Bourne and then
Speaker 3: the next day he had a similar overthrow to Devonte Parker. Yeah,
Speaker 3: he he's got to recognize that he ain't thrown a
Speaker 3: Jalen Wattle and Devonte Smith right like he those guys
Speaker 3: are slower receivers. But with that being said, they're really
Speaker 3: good at the catch point. So if he puts it
Speaker 3: on them instead of leading them into the end zone,
Speaker 3: if he just allows Devonte Parker to just go up
Speaker 3: to the tenth floor and pick it up and grab it,
Speaker 3: you know, over the defensive backs, That's how DeVante Parker
Speaker 3: is gonna win on a deep bat.
Speaker 1: Which we've seen, which we've seen now Max start to
Speaker 1: do right and it's I think we talked about this
Speaker 1: a little bit on the last show, but it's really
Speaker 1: started to click the last couple of days. And they
Speaker 1: tweeted this and people were kind of confused. That's why
Speaker 1: I tweet it because it.
Speaker 3: Sounds it sounds stupid.
Speaker 1: But the Patriots, the Patriots and Mac Jones and these receivers,
Speaker 1: they figured out this concept that if you throw the
Speaker 1: ball high to the tall, wide receivers and let them
Speaker 1: jump and get it like, they're gonna be able to
Speaker 1: make plays. They're gonna be able to get to the ball.
Speaker 3: He needs to know the strengths of the play, right.
Speaker 1: I know that you don't love the idea of being
Speaker 1: like a purely contested catch offense, and I don't think
Speaker 1: and I don't think that's sustained to be purely contested catch.
Speaker 1: But for them to hit their ceiling this year, it's
Speaker 1: gonna have to be a decent part of what they do.
Speaker 1: That's just the roster they've built. And you can argue
Speaker 1: the roster should be built differently, but we're past that
Speaker 1: at this point. Yeah, there's gonna have to be an
Speaker 1: element of fifty to fifty balls in this offense. And
Speaker 1: they and that's timing, that's chemistry.
Speaker 3: You can tell by my face how much I hate that.
Speaker 1: But they okay, but it's too late. It's too late.
Speaker 1: The team they have, Yeah, they are starting to really
Speaker 1: maximize some of those concepts here the last couple of days.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So I think the coolest thing about yesterday's practice
Speaker 3: from max perspective and just from the offens's perspective in general.
Speaker 3: You know, Alex that I spent a lot of time
Speaker 3: this offseason trying to learn the Bill O'Brien offense as
Speaker 3: best as I could, maybe a little too well. Yeah,
Speaker 3: And there were instances during that practice where I could
Speaker 3: have told you the play. And that's cool because that
Speaker 3: means that it's hitting exactly how it shook. Because I'm
Speaker 3: I'm no savants, So like, if I can tell just
Speaker 3: because of the way that they're running the routes and
Speaker 3: stuff like that, I could name the play, all that
Speaker 3: means that they're executing it exactly how it's drawn up
Speaker 3: on the whiteboard. Right, And there were a couple of
Speaker 3: different plays that hit like that that I was like,
Speaker 3: Oh wow, Like that's it's starting to come together. I
Speaker 3: think that.
Speaker 1: Play, the Gaki throw or in the Smith Schuster touchdown,
Speaker 1: that was the big play I think on Wednesday, right.
Speaker 3: So the Gaziki throw first was the first one where
Speaker 3: it clicked on and I was like, oh wow, like,
Speaker 3: that's that's teach tape of this concept. I don't want
Speaker 3: to name the concept again myself in trouble, uh, that's
Speaker 3: teach tape of this concept. And what it was was
Speaker 3: Kendrick Bourne was in a a split or stack i
Speaker 3: should say, with Kasiki, where Kendrick Bourne's on the line
Speaker 3: of scrimmage and Kasiki's a little bit off the line
Speaker 3: of scrimmage, and Kendrick Bourne is just going to release
Speaker 3: vertical and that's going to create like a little pocket
Speaker 3: of space. And then Kasiki has an option route. If
Speaker 3: it's zone, he can sit in between the zones. If
Speaker 3: it's man, he reads the leverage of the defender and
Speaker 3: just breaks opposite of the leverage of the defender. So
Speaker 3: all that's made possible by ken Boorn's release because it
Speaker 3: gives him that space to kind of make that operate,
Speaker 3: you know, to operate. It gives him that space to operate,
Speaker 3: and Kasiki recognized that the defender was outside of him,
Speaker 3: broke inside on a little angle route and Mac hit
Speaker 3: him in stride. And if it was a game, that
Speaker 3: would have been like a catch and run, yeah play.
Speaker 3: And that was the first one where I was like,
Speaker 3: that was on time, That's exactly how it's drawn up
Speaker 3: the receiver, both receivers ran their routes perfectly, and they
Speaker 3: hit it, and that's that's a really good thing. The
Speaker 3: next one was the Juju play where they had the
Speaker 3: double dig concept. That's a pretty simple one. Those types
Speaker 3: of plays that continued to happen in that practice. I was, Okay,
Speaker 3: now we're starting to not only can you see conceptually
Speaker 3: what they're trying to get done, but now they're executing it.
Speaker 3: And I think it goes back to something that Juju
Speaker 3: said yesterday actually, which was that they're at the point
Speaker 3: of training camp now where they're repeating plays, they're they're
Speaker 3: no longer installing, and I think that's where where the
Speaker 3: lights switched on for the offense was when they stopped
Speaker 3: getting bogged down by installing new plays and started trying
Speaker 3: to master the ones that they already know. And now
Speaker 3: we see what we see.
Speaker 1: Did they get to that point last year? I don't
Speaker 1: know that they did.
Speaker 3: I don't know, And but it makes me want to
Speaker 3: give Bill O'Brien a hug because he said he literally
Speaker 3: just he saved it. Like he we're on that step.
Speaker 3: I don't want to get too ahead of myself, but
Speaker 3: I think the biggest thing with with what you see
Speaker 3: from Bill O'Brien is he makes it so easy on everybody. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and for guys, they're in positions where they can win
Speaker 3: on their routes. And for the quarterback, you see the leverage,
Speaker 3: like you see the passing lane start to get created
Speaker 3: early in the route and that's like so beneficial to
Speaker 3: the quarterback because now you're not holding the.
Speaker 1: Ball right, especially with this offensive line right. And that's
Speaker 1: you said. He makes it easy for everybody. And the
Speaker 1: guy that really takes the brunt of it is Mac
Speaker 1: Jones because like you said, there's a lot of reads
Speaker 1: of levere and coverages and but that's why you invest
Speaker 1: the first round pick and a guy like Mac Jones
Speaker 1: because yeah, he has some deficiencies he talked about the
Speaker 1: arm strength, but he's going to be able to get
Speaker 1: to the line, recognize the defense's call and then adjust
Speaker 1: the offense accordingly to take it. There's no defense that
Speaker 1: can cover everything. It just doesn't exist. This is at
Speaker 1: its base what football comes down to. The defense is
Speaker 1: going to try to the offense is going to try
Speaker 1: to do something. The defense is going to try to
Speaker 1: take away something. If the defense guesses right and takes
Speaker 1: away with the offense is trying to do, the defense
Speaker 1: wins if the offense catches the defense off guard. So
Speaker 1: when you can essentially go into a play with multiple
Speaker 1: playans on offense, it makes it that much easier to
Speaker 1: counter whatever the defense is doing. And people are probably
Speaker 1: sitting at home and saying, why doesn't every team do that?
Speaker 1: You need really smart players to be able to do that,
Speaker 1: because there's players that.
Speaker 3: You needed coaches that can teach it, and I think
Speaker 3: and that's part of it. I think that's where it
Speaker 3: got caught up last year was that the coaches were
Speaker 3: trying to teach themselves what they were installing, and they
Speaker 3: were trying to figure it out on the fly. So
Speaker 3: when the players had questions and the players had things
Speaker 3: to work out and things bad habits that were starting
Speaker 3: to form and things of that nature, it was too late, right,
Speaker 3: Like they were too far gone at that point, the
Speaker 3: spacing and the timing of these routes. And we talked
Speaker 3: how much did we talk about spacing issues last year?
Speaker 3: You know, guys being crowded, guys running into each other
Speaker 3: at times. You don't see any of that in these
Speaker 3: practices now. And we're not even getting into and we
Speaker 3: can a little bit. We aren't even getting into like
Speaker 3: the schematic bells and whistles that O'Brien is putting on
Speaker 3: the offense. We're just talking about like simple football right
Speaker 3: at this point in time. And the other play that
Speaker 3: really got me excited was the touchdown that Mac threw
Speaker 3: to Juju yesterday down inside the red zone because we
Speaker 3: got a question about this from.
Speaker 1: Just the one where he was running the inline went
Speaker 1: up and got it. No, this is the one, yeah,
Speaker 1: the back of the end zone.
Speaker 3: It's ever so I think it's actually Patty and Aguam
Speaker 3: actually emailed us about the the little side sessions that
Speaker 3: they've been doing with during special teams periods. Mac and
Speaker 3: Bill O'Brien go over to the other field and bring
Speaker 3: like Juju and Parker and Bourne and Henry and like
Speaker 3: the big receivers with them. This is something that's been
Speaker 3: going on in New England since Brady was here. Brady
Speaker 3: would have like his little circle of trust. Yeah, the
Speaker 3: side session. Yeah, so this isn't new. It's not like
Speaker 3: a well, so it's.
Speaker 1: Different because Zappi and McSorley will go over for those
Speaker 1: as well. In the past it was just Brady, right,
Speaker 1: So it's not But it's not a new phenomena to football.
Speaker 1: It's my point. That was the question, that was Patty's question.
Speaker 1: It's not a new phenomenon.
Speaker 3: But the biggest thing was is that when they were
Speaker 3: in that that was little side sessions, they were working
Speaker 3: two and three man route combinations on the goal line,
Speaker 3: and they were practicing against air. But they were practicing
Speaker 3: those things and then they come yesterday at the end
Speaker 3: of practice and they bring it to eleven on elevee
Speaker 3: and they've noticed that the two defenders were going to
Speaker 3: banjo or switch basically like a pick and roll in
Speaker 3: basketball where you switch it instead of staying with your guy.
Speaker 3: And they recognized that pre snap. But that was the
Speaker 3: call that the defense made. And this is part of
Speaker 3: the part of training camp that I think is important
Speaker 3: to mention as well as just it's eight practices in
Speaker 3: the offense knows the defense, the defense knows the offense,
Speaker 3: and this is why we need to wait until joint
Speaker 3: practices happened to get really excited. But the MAC makes
Speaker 3: a check at the line of scrimmage because he recognizes
Speaker 3: that they're they're going to inside out the receivers and
Speaker 3: they ended up flooding one of the defenders and the guy,
Speaker 3: I think it was Jalen Mills is kind of just
Speaker 3: lost in no man's land. And that was a play
Speaker 3: that they took from that side session that they've been
Speaker 3: working on like all week long. They took it to
Speaker 3: the game, to the practice field, to the game field
Speaker 3: for now and it translated. And to see the progress
Speaker 3: that they've made in the red zone. When the first
Speaker 3: couple of day it was horrible, it was yeah, it
Speaker 3: was a little it was ugly. It looked like last
Speaker 3: year at times. Honestly, they're holding the ball, nobody open,
Speaker 3: things like that, And now all of a sudden, you
Speaker 3: start to see them making plays in the red zone
Speaker 3: and scoring in the red zone and that's really encouraging too.
Speaker 3: So they're getting better at the things that they're emphasizing
Speaker 3: and that they're working on. So, needless to say, that's
Speaker 3: a lot of inflating the tires for the offense. But
Speaker 3: I think it's all legitimate. I think the one thing
Speaker 3: that we have to continue to caveat and continue to
Speaker 3: be concerned about, to me is the offensive line. Just
Speaker 3: where I wanted to go next. The biggest thing with
Speaker 3: the offensive line, I should also mention is that you
Speaker 3: can't hit the quarterback right now? Yeah, so how is
Speaker 3: all of this gonna look offensively when mac Jones is
Speaker 3: on his butt?
Speaker 1: Well, so there's there's kind of two sides to that. Yes,
Speaker 1: mac Jones is gonna have to be good, good under pressure.
Speaker 1: And there's been times this camp. You had that play
Speaker 1: in the red zone on Monday.
Speaker 3: Tom Andre the the blitz.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, so he read the blitz, checked it
Speaker 1: through right into the blitz.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now, we talked about this earlier. They're doing a lot
Speaker 1: of quick hit stuff that's gonna help, you know, the
Speaker 1: offensive line doesn't come into play there. Yeah a ton,
Speaker 1: So there's that, but it is a question now I
Speaker 1: it's gonna be better. Like you said, they have two
Speaker 1: of their five starters right now on the field, Yeah, Mike,
Speaker 1: when Winner's gonna come back. It sounds like cole strange
Speaker 1: issue isn't serious. He's going to come back. Trent Brown
Speaker 1: is healthy by all indications. They're just managing his workloads,
Speaker 1: so he'll be back and then they'll figure out what
Speaker 1: they do it.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: Tackle, but that is the one and it's scary because
Speaker 1: that's the one thing you can't see in training camp
Speaker 1: right is the offensive line.
Speaker 3: And what I can see is that I hate training
Speaker 3: camp sacks because like, who actually knows the quarterback and
Speaker 3: slip a tackle the quarterback and step up in the pocket.
Speaker 3: It's really difficult to tell, especially without being able to
Speaker 3: review the practice tape if it would have really been
Speaker 3: a sack or not. But there's guys in the back
Speaker 3: we can all see it. There's guys in the backfield.
Speaker 3: And that's going to be the big question is when
Speaker 3: it's live, live, not just padded practice and training camp
Speaker 3: live with the quarterback in a red jersey. But when
Speaker 3: it's live, live, is it's still going to look as good?
Speaker 3: Now this sort of I want to get into some
Speaker 3: of the individual players, but this also sort of brings
Speaker 3: in Bill O'Brien again. A lot of the window dressing.
Speaker 3: A lot of the things that they're trying to do,
Speaker 3: I think is mainly being put in because it's good stuff,
Speaker 3: but it's also because they know that their offensive line
Speaker 3: might be a problem. So you're seeing a lot of
Speaker 3: jet motion, you're seeing a lot of backfield actions, you're
Speaker 3: seeing RPO, you're seeing play action. You're seeing empty which
Speaker 3: is just to get the ball out of the quarterback's
Speaker 3: hands as quickly as possible by spreading the field. And
Speaker 3: all these types of things are things that offensive good
Speaker 3: offensive coordinators do when they know that they might have
Speaker 3: some issues along on the offensive line.
Speaker 1: And this is something we talked about going back to
Speaker 1: the spring. I forget if it was this show or
Speaker 1: another show I was on. Somebody called in and said,
Speaker 1: you know, do they believe in their tackles? You know,
Speaker 1: are they maybe higher on their tackles than everybody else's.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's it's as much that as it
Speaker 1: is they're high on Bill O'Brien and they're high on Adrien
Speaker 1: Clem to kind of coach this group up. I'm high
Speaker 1: on a And then it came around it I think
Speaker 1: all from all the linemen that we've talked to. There's
Speaker 1: been some really positive reviews about CLEM, and I can
Speaker 1: see that they're fitting it properly. Like, I don't know
Speaker 1: if they're gonna be able to block it when it's
Speaker 1: you know, the Eagles front in week one or whatever,
Speaker 1: but the hats are in the right place.
Speaker 4: Hey.
Speaker 1: Look, I'll say this, some of the younger guys. Antonio
Speaker 1: Maffi's looked good. He wont to rap against Christian Barmore
Speaker 1: today in one on ones, which I think is an incredition.
Speaker 3: As the pads came on and Mafi started to look
Speaker 3: a lot better.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which obviously that's that's expected. So you're seeing the
Speaker 1: progress with some younger guys. I think in like they're
Speaker 1: gonna be able to hype some of these younger guys
Speaker 1: up and get these younger guys going. But they don't
Speaker 1: really have any younger tackles except for maybe Andrew Duber,
Speaker 1: who we saw very briefly on Monday when.
Speaker 3: Everybody was hurting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna be Conor McDermott, Riley, Reef, Calvin Anderson
Speaker 1: if and when he comes back.
Speaker 3: I'm not what's going on there.
Speaker 1: So I hate, I hate to go to this but
Speaker 1: you know when Bill's asked about it the other day
Speaker 1: and he talked about it because it's non football illness,
Speaker 1: not non football injury, and Bill didn't sound super bullish
Speaker 1: on him coming back soon. I you know, offensive tackle,
Speaker 1: young guy, NFI mystery. I go right to Antonio Garcia, right,
Speaker 1: got really sick blood clought has long lost like sixty pounds.
Speaker 1: He's out of football for a couple of years. When
Speaker 1: that's a worst case scenario, I don't know that it's
Speaker 1: there with Anderson, but it's.
Speaker 3: Like, that's tough, That's what it is. I feel terrible Bill,
Speaker 3: and I do too.
Speaker 1: But Bill sounding as I don't want to say pessimistic,
Speaker 1: but he sounded like he legitimately didn't know. I'm sure
Speaker 1: he knows what's wrong with Anderson, but he sound like
Speaker 1: he didn't know legitimate timeline, and just again it being
Speaker 1: that illness not injury thing, those that that can lead
Speaker 1: to some some scary situations. So I hope for the
Speaker 1: best for Calvin Anderson, obviously, but I'm starting to get
Speaker 1: to the point where I'm like, I don't because when
Speaker 1: camp opened and we were talking about the tax, like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: you know, Trent's gonna be back in Calvin Anderson will
Speaker 1: be back, and that's a guy they're probably counting on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of going away from that a little bit
Speaker 1: and seeing I wonder if they're gonna have to kind
Speaker 1: of plan for not having them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because not to pick on anybody, but like Riley
Speaker 3: Reef has been a little rough.
Speaker 1: It's been like he actually had probably his best day today.
Speaker 1: He's on one against josh Ucha look good.
Speaker 3: He's been good in what's I don't know for for
Speaker 3: what it's worth, I guess he's been better in drills
Speaker 3: than he has been in team right, So he's been
Speaker 3: solid in one on ones for the most part, and
Speaker 3: he's been really good in that kickout edge setting drill
Speaker 3: that they've been doing that He's been really good in that.
Speaker 3: But the issue is with with really the mainly the
Speaker 3: edge setting drill, but also both kind of drills. Like
Speaker 3: you're in a phone booth, you're not truly out on
Speaker 3: an island in either situation, especially edge setting one. So
Speaker 3: when he's able to just keep his feet under him
Speaker 3: and not have to move too much side to side,
Speaker 3: it's fine, but he's a tackle. He's not playing guard.
Speaker 1: Right when the guy has to come right at him, right,
Speaker 1: the guy has to come at him, And that makes sense,
Speaker 1: Like he's a strong guy.
Speaker 3: But the one guy I've seen give him fits is
Speaker 3: josh Ucha, who got him again today.
Speaker 1: But even I mean there were there were a couple
Speaker 1: of days early in practice where and don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: uh Jelani Tava is having a really good camp. But yeah,
Speaker 1: he's not a guy you expect to run around people.
Speaker 1: He's usually a guy that runs through people, which we've
Speaker 1: seen him too, but he's going around Riley Reef.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it hasn't been pretty for Riley Reef when
Speaker 3: he is asked to move his feet, which when you
Speaker 3: play tackle in the NFL is kind of an important
Speaker 3: thing to be able to do. So that's concerning. I
Speaker 3: think this is all but locked up for Connor McDermott
Speaker 3: at this point and right tackle. I've liked what I've
Speaker 3: seen and I liked the film last year from Connor McDermott.
Speaker 3: In the run game, he's a really good run blocker. Really,
Speaker 3: it's probably exaggeration. He's a solid run block. It's it's
Speaker 3: the better half of his game. Pass protection wise, I
Speaker 3: think he has a lot of the same issues that
Speaker 3: will that most tall tackles have where bend in ability
Speaker 3: to go down and get guys and get hands on
Speaker 3: guys that like an like an j type and you're
Speaker 3: gonna have hasan reddick coming off your right side in
Speaker 3: week one. Those types of guys are are difficult for
Speaker 3: six foot eight tackles. It's the problem that Nates Older
Speaker 3: had his entire career. Can you sit down in the
Speaker 3: chair and catch those types of guys that are the
Speaker 3: smaller finesse pass rushers. Kean White went right around him
Speaker 3: in one on ones the other day with the little
Speaker 3: outside inside and he's not even that small, correct. So
Speaker 3: Connor McDermott's biggest issue is going to be leverage in
Speaker 3: the past game. Can he move his feet, sink, get
Speaker 3: his hands on people. And I say sink, I mean
Speaker 3: like sink at the hips and the knees and get
Speaker 3: down in your in your in your stance and be
Speaker 3: able to square up guys because he's not somebody that
Speaker 3: consistently gets to his landmark and consistently is able to
Speaker 3: do that, And that's gonna be something that they're gonna
Speaker 3: have to protect against. But he's been okay last year
Speaker 3: and he's been okay in camp, but not they're not
Speaker 3: gonna have any difference makers at the tackle spot. At
Speaker 3: right tackle, No, Trent is a whole different story. If
Speaker 3: Trent wants it and his head screwed on right and
Speaker 3: he's in shape and he's and he's engaged, then Trent
Speaker 3: can be a difference maker. The right side is gonna
Speaker 3: be hold onto your pants, like, let's just survive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, A lot of the weeks it's can you get
Speaker 1: seventeen games of starting caliber play out of the combination
Speaker 1: of Reef and McDermott and maybe Anderson and maybe Stubart.
Speaker 3: That's what the question I would it stinks that stuper
Speaker 3: or not super Anderson is dealing with what he's dealing. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I was.
Speaker 1: Of all the tackles, I was the most excited to
Speaker 1: see him.
Speaker 3: Me too, because he's got the athletic profile, and he's
Speaker 3: got some really good film last year in Spurts at Denver,
Speaker 3: and he's got really, really good He's the best athlete
Speaker 3: out of the group that's not even close, even a
Speaker 3: better athlete than Trent. So that's that was something I
Speaker 3: was really looking forward to seeing because they've ran some plays,
Speaker 3: you know, pin poll toss that type of stuff to
Speaker 3: trying to get to the outside. And they cannot run
Speaker 3: outside the tackles right now because their tackles aren't fast
Speaker 3: enough to make the blocks. So that's gonna be something
Speaker 3: that they're going to have to coach around as well.
Speaker 3: Like they they've ran a lot of inside zone. Maybe
Speaker 3: it's duo, maybe it's inside zone. It's hard to tell live,
Speaker 3: but they've ran some downhill stuff. But they haven't really
Speaker 3: been pulling a lot of guards.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, they haven't had guards to pull, you know,
Speaker 1: it's not And this is the other thing I wanted
Speaker 1: to ask you, because I'm kind of trying to answer
Speaker 1: the question myself. Do you think they've seen enough at
Speaker 1: this point? Then when that when Mike, when winn who
Speaker 1: comes back, they'd consider playing him at right tackle. And
Speaker 1: when I say seen enough, I need both in terms
Speaker 1: of what the right tackles have done, but also what
Speaker 1: a Tony o'maffi has done, because he would move in
Speaker 1: as the starting right guard.
Speaker 3: Probably right, I still think they roll with McDermott for now.
Speaker 3: I think they try to see I think McDermott's done
Speaker 3: enough to not run away with the job, but secure
Speaker 3: that he could probably handle the job. I guess I'm
Speaker 3: trying to put this as lightly as I possibly can,
Speaker 3: because I'm not trying to say that Conor McDermott is
Speaker 3: Trent Williams or anything like that. So I think that
Speaker 3: he's done enough that you can at least try it
Speaker 3: out to start the year with McDermott at right tackle.
Speaker 3: But Mafi Maffy plays a really patriot like guard. You know,
Speaker 3: he's a hard nosed guard. He's a really good run
Speaker 3: blocker and passed per today. He caught a jumper and
Speaker 3: like threw the guy to the ground, which is kind
Speaker 3: of cool. And he's just he's physical. He's he's a stout.
Speaker 3: He's he's a cinder block, you know, and and and
Speaker 3: you can tell by the body the body type too.
Speaker 3: He's just he's just a wide body. And he's basically
Speaker 3: as advertised, like everything that we talked about with him
Speaker 3: at the Shrine Bowl and then in the draft, he's
Speaker 3: come as advertised so far in camp. But he's not
Speaker 3: going to be a fleet of foot guy. You're not
Speaker 3: going to ask him to get out on screens or
Speaker 3: a poll or move a whole lot but if you
Speaker 3: have him just coming off the ball and hitting some people,
Speaker 3: but he's gonna be fine. And I think that that's
Speaker 3: possible that they look at that. But I still think
Speaker 3: McDermott's gonna gonna be the guy. I would love to
Speaker 3: see Anderson hopefully by the time campus is done, just
Speaker 3: to see what it looks like. But I maybe this
Speaker 3: is just my priors, but I've kind of I'm kind
Speaker 3: of out on Riley Reef. I've been out on Riley
Speaker 3: Reeves since since I watched him last year after they
Speaker 3: signed him. I think he's a fine swing like, I
Speaker 3: think he's a serviceable third tackle and can play in
Speaker 3: a pinch, But I don't necessarily want to count on
Speaker 3: Riley Reef for seventeen games.
Speaker 1: Look, I don't even know that it's prior's I think
Speaker 1: coming in we said he's an older guy. He's thirty four.
Speaker 1: He showed some some decline last year. Yeah, where is
Speaker 1: his game at now? And we're kind of see where
Speaker 1: his game's at. It looks like he's lost another step,
Speaker 1: which happens to guys at thirty four. And yeah, he
Speaker 1: was a really good player back in the day, but
Speaker 1: that was eight years ago.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, let's take some of these calls. It's
Speaker 3: eight five to five PATS five hundred web radio at
Speaker 3: Patriots dot Com. And then I want to get to
Speaker 3: the receivers. I'm sure some of these calls might bring
Speaker 3: us to the receivers hot button topic, but let's start
Speaker 3: with Jeff and Mayne. Jeff, thanks for waiting. What's going on?
Speaker 4: Hey guys? How you doing? So a few things. One
Speaker 4: is anytime I drive by the ground round, Now I
Speaker 4: can't help but.
Speaker 3: Think of this wit where is wait? Where are you
Speaker 3: that there's a ground round? I thought they all call
Speaker 3: they closed the one by by need them.
Speaker 4: There's one in Bangor, Maine. It's like ten minutes.
Speaker 1: Oh that's good to know.
Speaker 3: SOMETI you're gonna drive all the way to Bangor.
Speaker 1: I have friends that live in Maine, so I go
Speaker 1: visit them. Sometimes you're gonna go to trivia there used
Speaker 1: to be trip I know. I go up to Maine
Speaker 1: to play golf sometimes, so if I'm in the area,
Speaker 1: it's good to know.
Speaker 4: So in terms of Dalvin Cook, I haven't been able
Speaker 4: to call the last couple of weeks, and I know
Speaker 4: this ship is mostly sailed, but I know that, you know,
Speaker 4: at least from my recollection, people always talked about his
Speaker 4: game being you know, he's this fast running back who
Speaker 4: just runs through gashes in the defense and is a
Speaker 4: home run hitter. And the whole time people were talking
Speaker 4: about him, I always thought that, you know, like, if
Speaker 4: we signed Dalvin coach Pierre Strong is basically going to
Speaker 4: get zero offensive snaps. And then in terms of the
Speaker 4: o line City So according to his college coach, by
Speaker 4: the way, it is pronounced so sow as a joke
Speaker 4: that the offensive line coach said, I haven't heard much
Speaker 4: about him in camp, but you know, with him and Stubor,
Speaker 4: you know, if Reed and McDermott are only slightly better
Speaker 4: than them, what it makes sense for you guys to
Speaker 4: play so or Stubor Because obviously it's not ideal to
Speaker 4: not have one of your best tackles out there. But
Speaker 4: if you're going to have subpart tackle play, would you
Speaker 4: rather just have a young guy who's ceiling we maybe
Speaker 4: haven't seen yet, and you know, rather than these veterans who,
Speaker 4: like you guys talk about, don't have great foot speed
Speaker 4: or great adeality. Necessarily, Yeah, I'll pop off the calls.
Speaker 4: You guys can discuss it. Thanks and Alex if you
Speaker 4: ever come up here, uh enjoy good to know.
Speaker 3: Thanks Jeff, thanks for the call shout out ground Round.
Speaker 3: But the biggest we'll have to tell it. Did we
Speaker 3: tell the full story about the ground I think you're
Speaker 3: going to and then we didn't? Okay, whenever, this was
Speaker 3: like a month. If we have time at the end,
Speaker 3: we can tell the story, but real quick.
Speaker 1: When Roddy Harrison came for his free agent visit, Bill
Speaker 1: took him to the ground Round.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like I think I think mister Krafft was there too.
Speaker 1: Now like twenty years later, they're going to moo in
Speaker 1: the seaport.
Speaker 3: By the ground Round by Needham like where I grew up.
Speaker 1: Okay, but hey yeah, ground Round undefeated Rodney Harrison, great
Speaker 1: Pete move.
Speaker 3: I don't know, Harris great Patriot Hall of Fame. That's
Speaker 3: right move.
Speaker 1: We'll see what happens with Ezekiel Elliott, but not proven
Speaker 1: like the ground Round is. I mean, he hasn't signed
Speaker 1: yet exactly. But to the Dovin Cook question, I I
Speaker 1: I think the Patriots right now and I think this
Speaker 1: is part of the work load management going on with
Speaker 1: Rimandre Stevenson too. I think they really want to give
Speaker 1: as many reps as possible to the second year running backs.
Speaker 1: These guys didn't play a whole lot last year, and
Speaker 1: I think they want to see what they have with them.
Speaker 3: That's the position nowadays. The position nowadays is not signing
Speaker 3: Dalvin Cook at twenty seven years old. It's drafting Isaiah
Speaker 3: Pacheco in the seventh round and turning him into a player. Right,
Speaker 3: That's what the league is gravitating towards. We know what
Speaker 3: the running back market is and all you're drafting and
Speaker 3: replacing at that position every three to four years. That's
Speaker 3: the goal for every team at this point, unless you
Speaker 3: have a truly special back, which is rare nowadays. So
Speaker 3: I think they want to see what they have with
Speaker 3: Kevin Harrison Pierre Strong. If we get to cut down
Speaker 3: day around that time when those that other roster movement happens,
Speaker 3: trades happen, holes present themselves. If we get to that
Speaker 3: time and those two guys are not really giving them
Speaker 3: what they need, showing them enough to trust them. Once
Speaker 3: the season rolls around, I think the Patriots will get
Speaker 3: more aggressive with whichever one of these free agent running
Speaker 3: backs they like, whether it's cook Zeke Leonard Fournette, whoever
Speaker 3: is their guy, and of course money is always a factor.
Speaker 3: When I say their guy, they'll make that move. I believe,
Speaker 3: let's call it September first, if we've gotten through the
Speaker 3: entire preseason in camp and the joint practices and all that,
Speaker 3: and Kevin Harris and Pierre Strong just aren't ready for
Speaker 3: the bright lights.
Speaker 1: I agree with your theory. I don't think they wait
Speaker 1: that long. I think you're looking at after the Green
Speaker 1: Bay game.
Speaker 3: They'll have a week at joint.
Speaker 1: Practices, a preseason game, you know, two weeks of fully
Speaker 1: padded practice here. You probably want to get that guy
Speaker 1: a little bit of lead time to learn the playbook.
Speaker 1: So I don't know that it's after cutdown day. I'm
Speaker 1: looking at like mid August. But same thing. I think
Speaker 1: that there's an element of look. They clearly recognize they
Speaker 1: need a back. They worked out another running back today, Evan.
Speaker 1: If you can tell me which USFL team he played
Speaker 1: for here, I'll be very import no idea. Birmingham's the
Speaker 1: two time champion Birmingham Stallions. That was. I don't know
Speaker 1: if it's CJ. Marrable or c J. Morble, but fourth
Speaker 1: leading rusher in the USFL. He worked out here.
Speaker 3: Today, so like.
Speaker 1: Yet another running back they've had for workout.
Speaker 3: Is my point.
Speaker 1: They clearly recognize they need another running back, but I
Speaker 1: do think there is an element of, like you said,
Speaker 1: they want Pierre Strong and Kevin Harris out there and
Speaker 1: getting these reps both as a learning experience and as
Speaker 1: an evaluation experience. And then I think again, you know,
Speaker 1: you'll see him in joint practices and that'll be big
Speaker 1: against the Packers. And then that's when, unless they're blown
Speaker 1: away by those two against Green Bay, they'll go back
Speaker 1: to the phones and again, whether it's Cook, whether it's Elliott,
Speaker 1: whether it's Fournette. I think it's gonna be Elliott, Yeah,
Speaker 1: if it is one of the guys, and they'll call
Speaker 1: that guy in and start getting that guy ready for
Speaker 1: the regular season.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then especially the other wild card here too, sorry,
Speaker 1: the other wild card here too is what happens with
Speaker 1: Toy Montgomery, because he is that fourth running back.
Speaker 3: And he did make an appearance, not in pads are participating,
Speaker 3: but him and Cole Strange onto the field towards the
Speaker 3: end of practice today. They were in jerseys.
Speaker 1: So I think hold strange than his helmet.
Speaker 3: I think it was signaling that they were off on
Speaker 3: the conditioning field doing some sort of rehab conditioning. So
Speaker 3: hopefully that's a good sign for Time Montgomery. But we've
Speaker 3: gone over the Time Montgomery thing. I think at this
Speaker 3: point you can't count on having Time Montgomery stay healthy.
Speaker 3: As much as I think it's he's shown some flashes
Speaker 3: and really shown some fun things that you can do
Speaker 3: with him as a player, I just think it's unrealistic
Speaker 3: to count on him to the city. So question, I
Speaker 3: think this is a really good question because unfortunately or
Speaker 3: whatever where we are. Where we are, they don't really
Speaker 3: have a whole lot of high upside talent at tackle
Speaker 3: in terms of young tackles. Obviously Trent is high upside,
Speaker 3: but in his own way, they don't have a whole
Speaker 3: lot of young tackle to talent. Now, So and Stuba
Speaker 3: are kind of there are only two guys, and from
Speaker 3: what I've seen from both of them, they've had moments,
Speaker 3: but it is extremely inconsistent. Like I write down, oh
Speaker 3: like Prealty a good rep for Andrews Duber, next time
Speaker 3: up he gets blown up, right, So it's and.
Speaker 1: That's and that's being a young player like that comes
Speaker 1: in and.
Speaker 3: This is his first taste of NFL padded practice because
Speaker 3: he didn't practice at all. Right, well he did. I
Speaker 3: think he did towards the end last year, but it
Speaker 3: was behind closed doors. I think.
Speaker 1: No, No, he was never I don't think he was
Speaker 1: ever out there.
Speaker 3: He was never out there. I don't believe. So, Okay,
Speaker 3: well we'll double check. It's that.
Speaker 1: It's that, and Bill said it this week. He's all,
Speaker 1: he's like an extra draft pick. He did that with
Speaker 1: Cameron mcgroon.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that really worked out. So that that's the
Speaker 3: main thing is just if there's any I'm kind of over.
Speaker 3: I've gotten over the receiver thing because our Lord and
Speaker 3: Savior Bill O'Brien is here and he's he's making it
Speaker 3: work with what they have. So I've gotten over DeAndre Hopkins.
Speaker 3: I cried about it enough. I'm done there. Their handling
Speaker 3: of the tackling position is bugging me because it didn't
Speaker 3: have to be this way. You didn't have to make
Speaker 3: it so hard on yourselves. You could have paid decent
Speaker 3: money to a tackle in free agency. I'm not talking
Speaker 3: about giving mcglinchy a top of the market deal.
Speaker 1: Just go out to me, like Caitlin McGary got like right, eleven.
Speaker 3: Million dollars right right. So the guy, the guy that
Speaker 3: they were reportedly in on was Andre Dillard. Remember this,
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, so they were reportedly in on Andre Dillard
Speaker 3: who signed with the Titans. I think for a three year,
Speaker 3: twenty seven million dollar contract. Very reasonable, very reasonable money.
Speaker 3: So looking back on it, and I understand this is
Speaker 3: not really the point right now, but I just.
Speaker 1: This is why I said before they have the team
Speaker 1: they have, we're moving on because I knew we're gonna
Speaker 1: get bogged down.
Speaker 3: He humored me for a second.
Speaker 1: By the they are also know McGary three years thirty four
Speaker 1: and a half.
Speaker 3: So Andre Dillard got three years twenty seven million from
Speaker 3: the Titans. And Andre Dillard is a He's not Isaiah Win,
Speaker 3: but he was not He did not pan out in
Speaker 3: Philadelphia as a first.
Speaker 1: Round He ended up getting moved to guard to one point.
Speaker 3: So he wasn't good. But he's been I shouldn't say
Speaker 3: it wasn't good. He just didn't work out as a
Speaker 3: first round pick. But he's got a lot of skill,
Speaker 3: especially in pass protection, and he's got first round athletic talent,
Speaker 3: and he's their kind of player's a scheme fit. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so all those things considered, you could have your your
Speaker 3: bet on a high upside guy instead of it being
Speaker 3: Calvin Anderson. At two and a half million dollars, you
Speaker 3: could have paid nine or ten million dollars for Andre Dillard,
Speaker 3: and then you still could have gotten Riley Reef for
Speaker 3: you know whatever. You still could have gotten Calvin Anderson
Speaker 3: for whatever, and he could have just had both. But
Speaker 3: instead here we are and you don't have a solid solution.
Speaker 3: Andre Dillard would have been a guy that a because
Speaker 3: of his contract most importantly, I suppose, but just in general,
Speaker 3: he would have been penned in as the starting tackle.
Speaker 3: I don't know which side, because you know, he's more
Speaker 3: of a left tackle. Maybe they ended up moving Trent
Speaker 3: backed out to right at that point, but regardless right
Speaker 3: he would have been in one of the tackle spots
Speaker 3: pend In I'm not gonna say sharpeed, but Pendin so
Speaker 3: one of those erasable point we we but we wouldn't
Speaker 3: have been worrying as much about it. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 3: I think Dillard in his own right would have been
Speaker 3: an interesting player to follow because the ups and downs
Speaker 3: in his career but we'd be saying, all right, you
Speaker 3: know at that point, Okay, Conor McDermott is a good plan,
Speaker 3: b right, And it's not like Calvin Anderson. They so
Speaker 3: could have signed Calvin Anderson for two and a half
Speaker 3: million dollars guaranteed, So instead of paying eight million dollars
Speaker 3: guaranteed for tackle help, you would have paid twelve Like
Speaker 3: was that really that difficult? No? And so here we are.
Speaker 3: And then the other thing is with the draft, would
Speaker 3: we've done over and over again? So I'm not gonna
Speaker 3: go down the whole road with the draft of how
Speaker 3: they wad to the fourth round to draft a guard
Speaker 3: to convert them to tackle. To now have us here
Speaker 3: with City So. So I'm not convinced that City So
Speaker 3: is going to be able to help them this year.
Speaker 3: I think that it's an interesting developmental talent, it's a
Speaker 3: project player, but I don't think he's gonna help him
Speaker 3: this year. And I'm concerned about the tackles that that
Speaker 3: ends that ran. But would it have killed you? Would
Speaker 3: it have killed you to give Andre Dillard to beat
Speaker 3: the Titans offer to hone?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you know, you know me, you're not wrong,
Speaker 1: But where it's late or no, it's not even like
Speaker 1: it's early August. They have they have the like not
Speaker 1: to go to Bill, but the guys that are here
Speaker 1: are the guys that are here at this point.
Speaker 3: Don't do that, I know, but like it, don't let
Speaker 3: them off the hook like that.
Speaker 1: It's not supposed to be with the show is talking
Speaker 1: about the guys who you know could.
Speaker 3: Have been here. I know. Don't let him off the hook.
Speaker 1: Like although I do have a take on on Taekwon
Speaker 1: thorn in that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're going to get into that. In the second
Speaker 3: Mark from Connecticut, he wants to talk to me, Uh, oh,
Speaker 3: do you have a do you have an axe? To grime? Mark?
Speaker 3: What's up?
Speaker 2: Evan?
Speaker 5: What's going on?
Speaker 2: Brother?
Speaker 3: Not much? How you doing?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Not bad?
Speaker 5: So I was at a practice on Friday, Monday and
Speaker 5: Tuesday nice and on Monday I was hoping to see
Speaker 5: you but never saw you. But guess who came over
Speaker 5: and talked to me? After I had a one on
Speaker 5: one with Tabario Pop Douglas.
Speaker 4: Who's that Benvolan?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 5: No, Benlan comes over to me and goes, do you
Speaker 5: know him? And I said no, but I do. Now
Speaker 5: I got to really chat with him for a little
Speaker 5: bit and got his autograph and everything, and I told
Speaker 5: him that he's the next Troy Brown Splash, Julian Edelman splash,
Speaker 5: Deon Branch Slash.
Speaker 4: West Welco the kids.
Speaker 5: The kid has it. He's got the quickness, he's got
Speaker 5: the quick step. I mean, I watched him three days
Speaker 5: in practice and he's killing it. I'll do with the
Speaker 5: ones and the twos.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's absolutely a good point. And thanks for the call. Mark.
Speaker 3: Next time you're at camp, shoot me a DM on
Speaker 3: Twitter and we'll meet up and we'll make sure we
Speaker 3: get a hello. And and and you don't have to
Speaker 3: talk to Ben Volan again in camp. Not yet.
Speaker 1: Nobody's asked Ben who listens to our show, He's called
Speaker 1: not ben Volan. Ben who listens to our show is
Speaker 1: called into our show. I met him today. Oh really
Speaker 1: very nice. Yeah, yeah, shut up, Ben. And when I
Speaker 1: did the thing with Sarage before camp, I think I
Speaker 1: did this last week. I just shaking some hands, walking back, okay, okay.
Speaker 3: Flexing flex and oh yeah, so many fans uh. Anyways,
Speaker 3: so good segue to receivers. So thanks for that, Mark.
Speaker 3: Do you want to start with the good or the bad.
Speaker 1: Uh, the bad's probably gonna be quicker because I feel
Speaker 1: like it's mostly good.
Speaker 3: Honestly, it's been better. It's been better. It's encouraging, you
Speaker 3: know what.
Speaker 1: Let's start with the good, because for me, the bad's
Speaker 1: really just one guy.
Speaker 3: Tomario Douglas might be a thing. He might be a thing.
Speaker 3: So I'm not ready to like go all Wes Welker,
Speaker 3: Dion Branch like guys that put up a thousand yards
Speaker 3: and won super Bowls, like both besides West. Sorry Wes,
Speaker 3: sorry but he almost did. But you know what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 3: I'm not ready to go there. Wes Welker has the
Speaker 3: most receiving guards ever in a single season by a Patriot.
Speaker 3: Let's let's pump the brakes. But he he looks the part.
Speaker 3: I can't. He looks good.
Speaker 1: I can't figure out a way to like formulate this
Speaker 1: without doing a whole ten minute thing. But we've worked
Speaker 1: together enough that you'll understand the same people have watched
Speaker 1: us for a long time. We'll understand when I ask
Speaker 1: you this is to Mario Douglas a guy or is
Speaker 1: he a dude?
Speaker 3: I think he's a guy for now. He might be
Speaker 3: a dude, but I need to see it. I want
Speaker 3: to see it in joints against some other teams who
Speaker 3: don't know the Patriots playbook like this defense does. I
Speaker 3: think the most exciting thing about Toamorio Douglass and Matt
Speaker 3: mentioned it today. Apparently he's an legend in Jacksonville, which
Speaker 3: I did not know. Probably would have should have done
Speaker 3: that for the story that I wrote about him after
Speaker 3: the draft. Probably should have made that. Something tells me
Speaker 3: you'll get a chance to write about him a few
Speaker 3: more times.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So here's the exciting thing about to Mario Douglas. He
Speaker 3: is the only player on this team that can create
Speaker 3: his own separation. He is the only guy. He's the
Speaker 3: only guy that can run a route, stick his foot
Speaker 3: in the ground and separate. And that is a breath
Speaker 3: of fresh air because we really haven't seen that too
Speaker 3: much and it's encouraging. And I think the other thing
Speaker 3: that makes it exciting is we know how Bill O'Brien operates.
Speaker 3: We know how much he can emphasize quickness, especially inside
Speaker 3: the formation, and you can envision scenarios where to Mario
Speaker 3: Douglas is your inside slot receiver and he's coming off
Speaker 3: the line of scrimmage and he's got a linebacker in
Speaker 3: front of him and he puts a little juke on
Speaker 3: him and all of a sudden, here we're off and running.
Speaker 3: And that's really where I see his role in this
Speaker 3: offense is in that number two and number three spot
Speaker 3: on the inside of the formation, running the juke routes,
Speaker 3: running the whip routes, running a crossers, you know, little
Speaker 3: things underneath the defense, things like that. And let's see
Speaker 3: what he can do with the ball in his hands,
Speaker 3: because the fight. We haven't seen true live tackling with
Speaker 3: him today and he guys are with owned it and
Speaker 3: he owned it. So he's explosive player. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I'm at the point where I like I have to
Speaker 1: There's not many things I can say to myself at
Speaker 1: this point to not get my hopes up. You know,
Speaker 1: early on it was, well they're not in pads yet.
Speaker 1: Then they's just one padded practice and like you said,
Speaker 1: the live tackling and this and that, but like he
Speaker 1: just continues to check box after box after box. He
Speaker 1: has chemistry with Mac Jones, which is big. And I
Speaker 1: know you're not as high on Kaishan booty as maybe
Speaker 1: some other people covering camp. But like he's had an
Speaker 1: okay couple of days here, He's had a fine couple
Speaker 1: of days here. But I think we can both agree
Speaker 1: on this, Pop And in theory, Kayshawn Booty's ceiling is
Speaker 1: higher just based on.
Speaker 3: What we saw at LSU. Well, that's not sure I
Speaker 3: believe that anymore.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, but I was gonna say this twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, and we have to kind of mix the
Speaker 1: good and the bad right now for this take. Who
Speaker 1: is an easier path to playing time Pop? Because they
Speaker 1: need a speed guy on this offense, and the speed
Speaker 1: guy's not showing up. And if that's true, if like
Speaker 1: literally he's been limited the last two days, Taekwon Thornton,
Speaker 1: If to Mario Douglas can keep this up it outside
Speaker 1: of the draft pick, it's going to get really hard
Speaker 1: to justify not having to Mario Douglas in the lineup
Speaker 1: over Taekwon Thornton, because.
Speaker 3: This is Juwan Williams, J. C. Jackson all over it
Speaker 3: a little bit. Literally, this happens with this team all
Speaker 3: the time, and I don't we don't Nikhil Harry Jacobe Myers, right,
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, better example, I'm trying to think of other ones. Now,
Speaker 3: I I we don't cover other teams, so I don't
Speaker 3: know if this happens as often in other teams, but
Speaker 3: it just feels like it happens all the time here
Speaker 3: where the sixth round pick ends up being the right
Speaker 3: pick and the second round pick ends up being a
Speaker 3: bus at the end of the day, I guess it
Speaker 3: doesn't necessarily matter because you you got the guys on
Speaker 3: the team on the roster, and the good guy wins
Speaker 3: right Like I don't, I guess it in theory, this
Speaker 3: is a stupid thing to be I'm not mad about it,
Speaker 3: because in theory would be a stupid thing to be
Speaker 3: mad about. But I think the biggest thing is with
Speaker 3: Douglas is you look at their other receivers and Parker
Speaker 3: juju Kendrick Bourne. I think Kendrick Bourne has a little
Speaker 3: bit more juice and speed than those other two. But
Speaker 3: we're talking about guys that are six foot one plus.
Speaker 3: We're talking about longer striders, and we're not exactly talking
Speaker 3: about burners guys that have real speed. And when you
Speaker 3: start to think about it, and then you add the
Speaker 3: tight ends like Hunter, Henry and Gasiki into that lineup,
Speaker 3: as well. It's a lot of the same kind of guy.
Speaker 3: It's a lot of the same type of guy that
Speaker 3: wins in the same type of way, that wins in
Speaker 3: the same type of area of the field. Pop Douglas
Speaker 3: is a totally different thing from all those other guys.
Speaker 3: So if I'm building an eleven personnel package right now
Speaker 3: for the Patriots, three wide receiver, one tight end, one
Speaker 3: running back, if I'm building that eleven personnel package out
Speaker 3: he brings a complimentary skill set to the table to
Speaker 3: Juju and DeVante Parker, who they're not going to take
Speaker 3: off the field.
Speaker 1: They remember we were talking about that battle of between
Speaker 1: Thornton in Bourne for that for that zerole. And look,
Speaker 1: I think Bourne's had a good camp. I do, and
Speaker 1: he's gonna play a role this year. But him with
Speaker 1: Juju and Parker, it's not a fast offense. You do
Speaker 1: need an element of speed in there. And I would
Speaker 1: say Kayshawn Booties put himself, not Keshanuddy. I would say
Speaker 1: tomorrow Douglas has put himself in that conversation with Born
Speaker 1: and Thornton for that role.
Speaker 3: I agree. And you also see what they're doing out
Speaker 3: there with him on like jet sweeps and end a
Speaker 3: rounds and things like that.
Speaker 1: Too, all those things we said when they drafted him.
Speaker 1: Do you remember my big take when they draft him?
Speaker 1: You can now run the Marcus Jones offense without having
Speaker 1: to take up too much of Marcus Jones time. We
Speaker 1: are seeing those concepts as with a very similar guy.
Speaker 3: As lazy as the comparison is, because it's right there
Speaker 3: for you. What a lot of fans that email us
Speaker 3: and call us and say, why don't we move Marcus
Speaker 3: Jones to offense full time? Pop Douglas is what you
Speaker 3: think you would? Right? Do it? You drafted?
Speaker 1: You drafted Marcus Jones again, basically is what happened. And
Speaker 1: it's funny too because when you're trying to come up
Speaker 1: with the comp form, because that's what we do. It's
Speaker 1: training camp. I have a ridiculous player comp later on,
Speaker 1: Oh god, and training camp is part of it. You're
Speaker 1: not going to guess what it is. It's it involves
Speaker 1: special teams. It's hard to come up with a comp
Speaker 1: for Jamorrio Douglas. Like, was it were you the one
Speaker 1: I was doing this with?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Somebody were like, you know, well, I think the
Speaker 3: closest Patriot comp is probably Deon Branch. But Deon Branch
Speaker 3: was bigger.
Speaker 1: Deon Branch was bigger, like you brought up West. But
Speaker 1: wes Welker ran a four six five faster I know,
Speaker 1: but he wes Welker was not this fast.
Speaker 3: He was just as quick. You know, I think the
Speaker 3: best player comp. So I looked this up last night
Speaker 3: to be right about it. So Deon was five nine
Speaker 3: was five nine that's what he was listed at.
Speaker 1: He he measured it at. The cop could have sworn
Speaker 1: he was sixty nine inches. I could have sworn he
Speaker 1: was six foot sixty nine inches. Pop does was five
Speaker 1: eight one two that's.
Speaker 3: When well, he's like five seven and three quarters. I don't,
Speaker 3: I don't h was de On that fast?
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, maybe that's the Deon was like mid for
Speaker 1: I think the cop. I know people like the comps.
Speaker 1: Marcus Jones, that to me is the comp.
Speaker 3: It's Marcus Jones. Marcus Jones is a full time like
Speaker 3: was a good full time receiver.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: I asked to Mario Douglas about this back at the
Speaker 1: Shrine Bowl, and this is months before he was drafted
Speaker 1: by the Patriots, and I maybe it's because of the
Speaker 1: Patriots was coaching staff. I don't know if he knew
Speaker 1: I was from New England, whatever, but I said, like,
Speaker 1: are there any NFL players you model your game after?
Speaker 1: And he he meant the two guys he mentioned. He
Speaker 1: mentioned Julian Edelman, he watched lot Julian Edelman, and the
Speaker 1: other guy he said was Marcus Jones. He says, I,
Speaker 1: since I was in high school, I watched Marcus Jones
Speaker 1: as a returner because and I'm paraphrasing here, but the
Speaker 1: way that Marcus Jones carries the ball and the way
Speaker 1: I carry the ball are very similar. So this isn't
Speaker 1: us just kind of sitting here grasping its straws to
Speaker 1: Mario Douglas believes he's a comparable player to Marcus Jones.
Speaker 3: It's kind of crazy that So obviously the reason why, uh,
Speaker 3: to Mario Douglas ended up at Liberty is because he's
Speaker 3: five foot seven, right, And that's the obvious reason. But
Speaker 3: based off of what Mac told us today, which in
Speaker 3: Mac mentioned that he was like a seven on seven legend. Yeah,
Speaker 3: which makes sense, right, but he said that he was
Speaker 3: kind of a legend in Jacksonville, where Mac Jones grew up.
Speaker 3: He's an NFL athlete, like you're in a low four
Speaker 3: to four in the forty yard dash. He played well
Speaker 3: at the Shrine Bowl against other NFL players, He's played
Speaker 3: well in training camp against NFL players. I just it's
Speaker 3: funny how this happens sometimes, that these guys end up
Speaker 3: at Liberty, right, Just you would think that Alabama Lsu Georgia,
Speaker 3: like somebody would have snagged him, right, Florida, he's down
Speaker 3: in Jacksonville. Where's Miami at? Like, why isn't he playing
Speaker 3: in Miami? Right? You know those types of things, And
Speaker 3: I think what you have to do and what we
Speaker 3: try to do here on this show is forget that
Speaker 3: he was a sixth round pick, forget that he went
Speaker 3: to Liberty, and just look at what you're seeing and
Speaker 3: the way that I look at it now, I think
Speaker 3: he has a legitimate chance. And I'm not going to
Speaker 3: put expectations in terms of production on tomorrow Douglas because
Speaker 3: I don't know yet or too soon for that, but
Speaker 3: I think he has a legitimate chance to be a
Speaker 3: third wide receiver in this offen this year, behind Parker
Speaker 3: and Juju, Which is crazy to think that I'm saying,
Speaker 3: like I didn't think I would be saying that, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I didn't. I think it's legitimate.
Speaker 1: I think I don't know, like true, I think him
Speaker 1: and Bourne will still rotate, Yeah, because.
Speaker 3: I think it'll be game planned, will be a situation
Speaker 3: r Mack.
Speaker 1: Mack likes Bourne. I think Bill O'Brien really likes Kendrick Bourne.
Speaker 1: And I mean Kenrick catch the day to day back
Speaker 1: corner of the end zone, little toe tap for mac Jones.
Speaker 3: Six hours later? What do you mean it was? It
Speaker 3: was late. It's kind of late. What do you mean
Speaker 3: it was late? It was like almost a sack. Oh,
Speaker 3: the corner round at the I thought you were talking
Speaker 3: about the one from Bailey Zappy my bad. No, Oh,
Speaker 3: that was a sack. I mean he's a nice cash
Speaker 3: for sack.
Speaker 1: No, the one from from mac Jones in the red
Speaker 1: zone he put over Christian Zalez.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Like, I think Bourne's gonna play too, But are they
Speaker 1: and ks sick He's gonna factor in here. They're gonna
Speaker 1: run twelve, But are they like fifty five forty five
Speaker 1: percent guys something like that, you know, forty five thirty five.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I'm not even gonna playing a team with
Speaker 3: the slow secondary. I want to see Pop Douglas on
Speaker 3: the field. That's I got that for you.
Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta comp for you. And what you
Speaker 1: said just made me think of this. Yeah, you get
Speaker 1: a team that there's a slow slot corner out there?
Speaker 1: Can he be Isam mackenzie against the Patriots isa McKenzie,
Speaker 1: Not against everybody else, Isaiah McKenzie.
Speaker 3: It's not like that. It's not bad.
Speaker 1: And it's like we've seen him against Miles Bryant, given
Speaker 1: Miles Bryant trouble.
Speaker 3: So isaamh McKenzie is like a world class sprinter speed,
Speaker 3: but I think that it's not a terrible comp Let's
Speaker 3: move on from Pop Douglas though, what about Taiequa? Like,
Speaker 3: how worried are we? I don't even know if worrieds
Speaker 3: the right word. It's just like at this point, he
Speaker 3: missed a lot of time last year with the with
Speaker 3: the with the collarbone injury. Yeah, he's missing more time
Speaker 3: this year. He missed some time in the spring with
Speaker 3: whatever the hamstring or whatever, the soft tissue. I think
Speaker 3: is how rees reported it. I just I've seen this
Speaker 3: movie before. When you fall behind the when you fall
Speaker 3: behind in this offense, then it's really hard to jump
Speaker 3: on the moving train. It just difficult. And if we
Speaker 3: talk about how I was ready to wash away the
Speaker 3: rookie year for all the guys that were here last
Speaker 3: year because of the offense in the situation. But Taekwon
Speaker 3: struggled as a rookie and now he's struggling to stay
Speaker 3: healthier or whatever you want to call it in his
Speaker 3: second season. I just I don't know the air is
Speaker 3: out from yeah, you know me, I was. I was
Speaker 3: as jazzed up as anybody to see Taekwon in year two,
Speaker 3: especially in a real.
Speaker 1: Life You're ready after that first OTA practice to declare
Speaker 1: him the real deal.
Speaker 3: So I don't know. I don't know what it's. It's
Speaker 3: a it's a crappy situation.
Speaker 1: I determine I used yesterday. I wasn't even thinking when
Speaker 1: I used this. I was like, mid question, just came
Speaker 1: to mind. Danger zone, Like he's in a I don't
Speaker 1: think he's lost his spot yet. You know, if he
Speaker 1: comes back tomorrow and starts making plays, it's all right.
Speaker 3: He had a rough week. He's back.
Speaker 1: He's in good ta We know we can have a
Speaker 1: good camp because he's having a very good camp last
Speaker 1: year until he got hurt. Yeah, but if he can't
Speaker 1: get on the field and he can't produce in the
Speaker 1: red zone when he's on the field and they have
Speaker 1: they The other thing was we thought Taekwon Thornton was
Speaker 1: gonna have this long leash because well, they need the speed, right,
Speaker 1: they're kind of desperate, they need the speed. They're gonna
Speaker 1: have to put him out there. Oh hold on, maybe not,
Speaker 1: maybe not because to Mario Douglas showed up and showed
Speaker 1: up big time. And now we get back to I
Speaker 1: think Evan we had a really interesting conversation about this,
Speaker 1: probably like a month month and a half ago. Mac
Speaker 1: likes throwing to to Mario Douglas. He does if Mac
Speaker 1: is going to be better with toa Mario Douglas, what
Speaker 1: are you putting Taekwon Thornton on the field for?
Speaker 3: So I do think that to an extent, they are
Speaker 3: different in some respects because Taekwon's Taekwon. People that I
Speaker 3: get excited about him, like me call him tall Reek, right,
Speaker 3: like Taekwon's tall. Taikwon six foot one, six foot two.
Speaker 3: He is a burner. He's an over the top you know,
Speaker 3: everybody say catch up, you know, take the top off.
Speaker 3: The defense. That's what I'm looking for, vertical route runner,
Speaker 3: whereas I think Tomorrow Douglas is gonna live on the
Speaker 3: quick hitters underneath and then like occasional crossing cross a route,
Speaker 3: crossing routes at different levels of the defense. I don't
Speaker 3: think that Tomorrow Douglas is lining up on the outside
Speaker 3: and running a go route, I guess is my point.
Speaker 3: So I think in some respects they're a little bit
Speaker 3: different in how they win. And it would be nice
Speaker 3: if if Taekwon was actually good to have two guys
Speaker 3: that can actually run out there for once, but at
Speaker 3: the same time, he didn't do anything when he was
Speaker 3: out there, then he gets hurt. I was almost more
Speaker 3: worried about this when he was practicing, because they were
Speaker 3: out there in shorts and a T shirt and he
Speaker 3: was doing nothing right. And if you if a four
Speaker 3: to eight guy is in shorts and a T shirt
Speaker 3: and he can't separate, that's concerning like that, that's where
Speaker 3: those types of guys should pop off, especially in year
Speaker 3: two when you're comfortable in the NFL. And and you know,
Speaker 3: he said all these things at the podium last week.
Speaker 3: I think it was earlier this week that the game
Speaker 3: was slowing down for him, And I had no disrespect
Speaker 3: to Taekwon, but I was thinking, like, is it like
Speaker 3: it doesn't look like it is? It looks it looks
Speaker 3: like you're you're still struggling out there. So it's concerting
Speaker 3: with Taekwon because you know the investment. You know that
Speaker 3: they drafted him in the second round. We've seen this
Speaker 3: movie before with the Patriots with second round picks. We've
Speaker 3: seen this movie before with high picks at that position.
Speaker 3: And I don't want We are not going to do
Speaker 3: the second guests on this show. We're not going to
Speaker 3: do the George Pickens, Alec Pierce. Can I give a take?
Speaker 3: Can I?
Speaker 1: And this might be a hot take, and I know
Speaker 1: we don't really do hot takes on the show. And
Speaker 1: maybe this gets me called a homer, but I stand
Speaker 1: by it. I going back. I'm okay that they didn't
Speaker 1: take George Pickens. I'm very okay with that. This is
Speaker 1: a guy that it's all go ahead. This is a
Speaker 1: guy that had two significant knee injuries, had some person
Speaker 1: had some character concerns. Yeah, for a team that has
Speaker 1: swung and missed at wide receiver as much as they
Speaker 1: have a guy that has that much variance is that
Speaker 1: much high risk? Even if he was high reward. The
Speaker 1: Steelers churn out wide receivers, that's what they do. George
Speaker 1: Pickens was.
Speaker 3: Always going to be a success there here.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Now, could they have made better picks
Speaker 1: than Thornton?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: The second guess I make is could you have gone
Speaker 1: Christian Watson in the first round and then gotten a
Speaker 1: guard later on? Or could you have You know, they
Speaker 1: reaped up to fifty to get Thornton? Could they have
Speaker 1: moved up a little higher to get John Metchi?
Speaker 3: And I know, I know you did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I know, like Mechi. Yet now we later
Speaker 1: found out he had cancer. We didn't, you didn't. You
Speaker 1: can only go with the information he had at the time, right,
Speaker 1: So I would I would throw sky Moore and sky
Speaker 1: Mores it. But I know he didn't have a good,
Speaker 1: big first year in Kansas City. But he's a speed
Speaker 1: receiver that I think is a better route runner than Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a little more of a slot guy, and I
Speaker 1: think they wanted a boundary guy, so that one again
Speaker 1: I understand, But like I I don't hold it against
Speaker 1: them that they didn't pick Pickens. I understand why they
Speaker 1: didn't do it.
Speaker 3: It burned him.
Speaker 1: It was the wrong like it didn't work out.
Speaker 3: But nobody wants to put any context into the Jorge picks.
Speaker 1: They made the right decision at the time and not
Speaker 1: taking Pickens, they could have picked somebody better maybe, but
Speaker 1: that's not If you want to second guess the Patriots
Speaker 1: on the draft, you have plenty of opportunities to do
Speaker 1: so over the last few years. I don't think that's
Speaker 1: one that you need to go to to do it.
Speaker 3: I would also say with George Pickens, like, show me
Speaker 3: a highlight of George Pickens at Steelers camp. That's not
Speaker 3: a crazy contested catch.
Speaker 1: So have you noticed it's all been against Joey Porter Junior.
Speaker 3: No, I didn't notice that. But like, as we sit
Speaker 3: here and talk about how useless DeVante Parker is because
Speaker 3: all he does is win jump balls, and then George
Speaker 3: Pickens wins a jump a bunch of jump balls and
Speaker 3: one on ones at Steelers camp, and everybody's like, oh,
Speaker 3: he should have drafted that guy, right, It's like he's
Speaker 3: just a Vante Parker but younger, Like, can we just
Speaker 3: relax that that's this is a whole separate thing. But
Speaker 3: like wide receiver dB one on ones I have no
Speaker 3: time for. Like, if you're an NFL wide receiver and
Speaker 3: you're you're a legitimate pro receiver, you should win a
Speaker 3: one on one against the dB like eighty five percent
Speaker 3: of the time. You have no need for any of that.
Speaker 1: How about I love How about the tight ends in
Speaker 1: the safeties, Nope? How about Christian Zaliz against Devonte Parker, Nope?
Speaker 3: I see. I think those are interesting.
Speaker 1: Because you're interesting because you can add a disadvantage and
Speaker 1: you see how he does add a disapanting.
Speaker 3: I think they're interesting for two reasons. One, you see
Speaker 3: the alphas come out right, you see the demeanor and
Speaker 3: the competitiveness. And the second thing I would say is
Speaker 3: that you see how guys move without having to be
Speaker 3: clogged up by the other twenty one guys on the field, right,
Speaker 3: So you it's a snapshot of just this player and
Speaker 3: just that player. And that helps people like us that
Speaker 3: are trying to watch practice. It helps us be able
Speaker 3: to isolate guys and not have to worry about missing
Speaker 3: everything else. I think O line D line one on
Speaker 3: ones are really really good things to watch.
Speaker 1: See, this is why we were a good team when
Speaker 1: we work together. I know because you would watch that
Speaker 1: and I would watch that. Matt Dolliff watches.
Speaker 3: The O line. The O line, D line are really translatable,
Speaker 3: like that's that's football. That's you can see a lot
Speaker 3: about how guys move their feet, how they reposition their hands,
Speaker 3: refit their hands, uh, how they change directions, Like you
Speaker 3: can see a ton of things about uh, how they
Speaker 3: handle power right like that all that type of stuff
Speaker 3: in O line, D line one on ones running back
Speaker 3: or wide receiver, cornerback one on ones to me is
Speaker 3: is like it's it's it's it's Madden. It's like video
Speaker 3: game stuff, like.
Speaker 1: They actually put it in Maden this year. It's going
Speaker 1: to be in the new mates.
Speaker 3: Because corners have help, right, Like so it's unrealistic. I'm sorry,
Speaker 3: we don't. We don't need to go through this, but.
Speaker 1: Like what like but now I gotta get you on
Speaker 1: Madden so we can run.
Speaker 3: Tell me when a corner isn't going to have safety
Speaker 3: help to play off of well, if in the system,
Speaker 3: never if if they're doing that the the ten on
Speaker 3: ten thing, Hey you're step Geelmore tie lad, but that's
Speaker 3: one guy. But don't we want.
Speaker 1: But that's what So I'm not saying every rep holds weight,
Speaker 1: But I said Christians against Devontae Parker. If he's winning those,
Speaker 1: that's notable, okay. But the other thing is is like
Speaker 1: we're getting really bogged down here by this. But the
Speaker 1: other thing is yesterday, I actually they were done that
Speaker 1: on the O line D lines. I looked over to
Speaker 1: the wild last one between Gonzalez and Parker.
Speaker 3: How many moves is Parker you're gonna throw on him before?
Speaker 3: For it's okay? But if I was the coach, I
Speaker 3: would have blown the whistle and been like, Davante, you
Speaker 3: gotta you gotta make a move, Okay, you don't have
Speaker 3: eight seconds to throw the ball, And then everybody puts
Speaker 3: it down as a win for DeVante Parker like that's
Speaker 3: gonna win.
Speaker 1: Well, okay, that's on them for interpreting that wrong. I
Speaker 1: can't come in and look at that and say Christian Gonzalez,
Speaker 1: even though Parker eventually got the catch after five mooves
Speaker 1: moves at a very impressive rep against Devantae Parker. I
Speaker 1: can't come in and say, all right, so that's.
Speaker 3: What you know. Some people don't do that. But that's
Speaker 3: why people listen to this show. That's true. They want that.
Speaker 3: Let's go through these calls, uh call screens lighting up
Speaker 3: to now. I love that. Patty's an agu on Patty.
Speaker 3: We we read your email, so don't ask the same question.
Speaker 2: I was gonna ask you guys.
Speaker 3: That's okay. Do you have another question?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: You know what, I'll throw this one out at you guys.
Speaker 2: So let's just say to Mario, does this thing throughout
Speaker 2: you know, throughout camping, through the preseason and Kaishan Boute
Speaker 2: or Booty or however the hell.
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 2: He continues to build up on the momentum that he
Speaker 2: displayed yesterday. And I don't know what he did today,
Speaker 2: but can you envision them to keep them both, these
Speaker 2: guys on the on the final fifty three?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I can. And thanks for the call, Patty, and
Speaker 3: thanks for the email. As always, I wanted to talk
Speaker 3: about Booty, I I'm just forgot. So I'm glad we
Speaker 3: we we got this in here. I could see a
Speaker 3: world where they keep both because I don't know what
Speaker 3: the heck is going on with Taekwon Thorin, so maybe
Speaker 3: it's a situation where Taekwon is ird. You know this,
Speaker 3: the whole post roster cut down, like all that minutia.
Speaker 3: We don't have to get bogged down by that. But
Speaker 3: I think that there's a world where they keep Well,
Speaker 3: they're not going to keep six guys, but I think
Speaker 3: that there's a world keep.
Speaker 1: They might have to initially because I don't know that
Speaker 1: you're getting either of those guys through waivers. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: unless you're saying they're going to put Taekwon on IR
Speaker 1: before the fifty three the off, so I guess that's true.
Speaker 3: At that point, you're done. They could cut somebody like
Speaker 3: one of the freaking Special Teams guys and then cut
Speaker 3: him initially, tell him to stick around. They put Taekwon
Speaker 3: on IR after the f and we're we don't know
Speaker 3: how serious Taekwon's injury is. Trying to say that. I'm
Speaker 3: not saying that Taekwon's definitely going to IR or anything
Speaker 3: like that, but that's a possibility that they could carry
Speaker 3: six initially and then make room for it to be
Speaker 3: five eventually. Right post cutdown with Booty, I don't want
Speaker 3: to I don't want to rag on him. I think
Speaker 3: he's had a couple of good practices. I think it's
Speaker 3: a fun name that gets impressions and gets clicks for
Speaker 3: us when we talk about Booty and Douglas, Like when
Speaker 3: you write about those two guys, it goes off. That's
Speaker 3: that's the job. I get it. But I don't think
Speaker 3: that I've seen anything from Booty that's been super impressive.
Speaker 3: He's a he's an explosive linear athlete, like he had.
Speaker 3: He runs a pretty good go ball right like he
Speaker 3: runs well up the field. I've seen that. I think
Speaker 3: he's stiff. I don't think that he's got a whole
Speaker 3: lot of wiggle. I think he's a little bit robotic
Speaker 3: or stiff in the hips and that that's something that
Speaker 3: I've noticed. But I just haven't been as impressed with
Speaker 3: him as as Douglas. But Douglas has done doing it
Speaker 3: longer than Yeah, I think, but a couple of practices.
Speaker 1: Booty at a slow start. That doesn't help. I think
Speaker 1: you're understelling. He said he's made some impressive or he's
Speaker 1: made some impressive plays on the ball, Like I think
Speaker 1: his body control is really good.
Speaker 3: I agree.
Speaker 1: Now, some of the reason I say implus impressive plays
Speaker 1: on the ball and not him and not catches is
Speaker 1: there's been times where he's done a great job to
Speaker 1: get himself in position to make a catch and then
Speaker 1: didn't make the catch. Well, so that that's but that
Speaker 1: was a knock on him in college. Was it's definitely
Speaker 1: something he's wearing. But I think the last couple of days,
Speaker 1: I don't think he's a drop the last three or
Speaker 1: four days no, So so it's his body.
Speaker 3: His body control and the ability to judge to the
Speaker 3: ball is better than that.
Speaker 1: As crazy as this sounds, and this is kind of
Speaker 1: the way camp goes. If to Mario Douglas was just
Speaker 1: in the background, I think we would be really excited
Speaker 1: about Kashawan Boody right now. But the other rookie got
Speaker 1: going quicker and is fast and gives them a skill
Speaker 1: set they need. Whereas if Kayshawan Boody, you know, turns
Speaker 1: out to be what we think he would be at
Speaker 1: as best as a rookie, So then they have Kendrick
Speaker 1: Born again, which isn't bad, but Kendrick Bourney, I don't
Speaker 1: know what what does Booty give them that they don't
Speaker 1: already have.
Speaker 3: Especially like I when I look at his body type. Yeah,
Speaker 3: not talking about him as a player, necessarily, but like
Speaker 3: him and Juju look a lot alike, like they're both thicker, So.
Speaker 1: I think he's somewhere. I guess I should say between
Speaker 1: like Kendrick Bourne. I think he's more explosive than Juju,
Speaker 1: but he's not quite as explosive as Born.
Speaker 3: I think he's kind of like like ideally he would
Speaker 3: be like young, younger Juju, right, like the knee injuries.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So that that's where I'm like, One, he started
Speaker 1: later than Booty, or started later than Douglas. In two,
Speaker 1: he doesn't add something they don't already have. That doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that there's not value in keeping him. There certainly is,
Speaker 1: but it's which is Kashaun Booty. It's like very air.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I keep doing that To Mario Douglas.
Speaker 1: First of three podcasts is going to be an adventure.
Speaker 1: To Mario Douglas, it's like I can see immediately, like
Speaker 1: we talked about before, this guy's gonna play He's gonna
Speaker 1: play this role.
Speaker 3: This is what they need him to do. Boom.
Speaker 1: It's like, all right, he's done this role in bill
Speaker 1: O Bryant's offense. Whereas Kashaun Booty, even if he's good.
Speaker 3: Okay, then what right? Right?
Speaker 1: So all right, they have another good receist, but he's
Speaker 1: still probably gonna be a backup.
Speaker 3: Like I will reiterate again, DeVante Parker and Juju are
Speaker 3: not coming off the field right.
Speaker 1: Well, with Juju you have to worry about injuries, but
Speaker 1: Parker too, I guess.
Speaker 3: Exactly like Kaishan Boody at best is depth in case
Speaker 3: one of those guys.
Speaker 1: To go back to the question, and maybe this ties
Speaker 1: into that, you know, can they keep all six? Kaishun
Speaker 1: Booty is not your typical sixth round pick. This is
Speaker 1: a guy that was an elite prospect coming out of
Speaker 1: high school less than a year ago, was projected to
Speaker 1: be the number one receiver in the draft, a draft
Speaker 1: that included Jackson Smith and jigbins A Flowers.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then had a.
Speaker 1: Bad year at LSU and for some reason decided to
Speaker 1: run the combine with a broken ankle, which I don't
Speaker 1: understand why he did that, but.
Speaker 3: All the power to do him for doing agent.
Speaker 1: So like if he starts showing flashes, yeah, he's not
Speaker 1: getting a practice squad, somebody's gonna be like, all right, no,
Speaker 1: they unlocked it, they found it, They found the guy
Speaker 1: he was supposed to be after his freshman year at LSU, Like,
Speaker 1: you're not getting him to the practice squad, so you'll
Speaker 1: see it. At that point, it's either do you essentially
Speaker 1: let him go or do you do you have to
Speaker 1: keep six? Yeah, and I think that they may look
Speaker 1: at it and say, you know, Parker and Juju or
Speaker 1: injury prone Kendrick Bourns in the last year of his deal.
Speaker 1: We don't know what Taekwon is gonna be. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: need this long term potential at wide receiver. We can't
Speaker 1: let him go.
Speaker 3: If I had to do a fifty three man roster projection,
Speaker 3: I had him so hard. I didn't really think about it,
Speaker 3: like necessarily because I'm not planning on doing one until
Speaker 3: after the first preseason game. But I'm doing one Saturday.
Speaker 3: I guess I could kind of see it now that
Speaker 3: now that Patty laid it out, or it was Patty
Speaker 3: right laid it out. It just I think that there
Speaker 3: is a world where they carry six initially and then
Speaker 3: they're able to figure out the numbers post cutdown, whether
Speaker 3: it's iring somebody bringing back a special teams guy, you
Speaker 3: know that they Rolly Webb or whatever. Who has actually
Speaker 3: made some play.
Speaker 1: Okay, can I give you my rolliy Web take It's
Speaker 1: kind of weird, right like hang on, Rally, Web gets open.
Speaker 3: We can play.
Speaker 1: Web gets open a lot. Now it's it's against the
Speaker 1: thirteen defense. There are other guys who are not getting
Speaker 1: open because the thirteen a little stutter and go and
Speaker 1: the and like blue by, somebody gets open. He's made
Speaker 1: contested catches, he's shown some good body control. Now he's
Speaker 1: converted college safety.
Speaker 3: And he's doing it all where at number forty four.
Speaker 1: Shout out Mark, shout out Mark Edwards, which makes it
Speaker 1: even I'm not gonna sit here and say, Rally Webb
Speaker 1: is going to solve all their problems at wide receiver.
Speaker 1: But that's not saying that as an emergence like if
Speaker 1: they get really banged up. We just talked about how
Speaker 1: a lot of these guys Taekwon Parker Juju the injuries
Speaker 1: playing wide receiver as an emergency wide receiver like break class,
Speaker 1: like as your seventh eighth wide receiver, you could do
Speaker 1: worse than Rolly Webb.
Speaker 3: Okay, he ate fine, he gets open. It's not worth
Speaker 3: Webb gets open. Does he not get open? Evan he
Speaker 3: gets open Joey in Texas. What's going on? Joey, Joey, Joey.
Speaker 1: Go was shocked by that tape. I want you to say,
Speaker 1: Rolly Webb gets.
Speaker 3: Onry comeback and we'll get you on the air.
Speaker 1: You said it before I went on that rant. You
Speaker 1: just hate it because I said it.
Speaker 3: It just was ridiculous. All right, wrestles in Boston? What's that? Russell?
Speaker 4: Hey, how's it going on?
Speaker 3: It's going well? Thanks for calling.
Speaker 6: I'm a he's Fran of the podcast. I have one
Speaker 6: quick question for you guys. There's a few free agents
Speaker 6: out there. I know that Nico Elliott's one of them.
Speaker 6: So do you see the pages signing these last moments
Speaker 6: during training camp leading up to the preseason and eventually
Speaker 6: this first game with the season.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a good question. They do have an open
Speaker 3: roster spy right now theoretically. And thanks for the call, Russell.
Speaker 3: So I I think we're both on the same page
Speaker 3: with the running backs. I think we both lean Zeke.
Speaker 3: It just feels like the best combination of they're not
Speaker 3: going to pay Dvin Cook right like they're not going
Speaker 3: to pay his quote.
Speaker 1: Can I tell you my theory on Dalvin Cook by like, yeah,
Speaker 1: tinfoil hat Theoryvin Cook he already signed with the Jets.
Speaker 1: They're just waiting to announce it on the season premiere
Speaker 1: of Hard Knocks.
Speaker 3: Oh my god. If they did, that's what it is,
Speaker 3: then they're not anywhere very stupid, That's what it is.
Speaker 3: They are not going them.
Speaker 1: He called them a super team, so I now get
Speaker 1: to compare them to the twenty eleven Eagles.
Speaker 3: Okay, but if that's what happens, they're not. They're I
Speaker 3: am selling all my stock in the Jets. It's like,
Speaker 3: because I think I kind of believe in the Jets.
Speaker 3: I do. I do a little bit too.
Speaker 1: It it's like oddly quiet after he pretty much said
Speaker 1: he was going to be a Jet.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I lean towards Zeke because I think it's
Speaker 3: I I tweeted this and everybody at tacking what about
Speaker 3: Dalvin Cook. It's a it's about the value for me.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying that Zeke is a better player than
Speaker 3: Dalvin Cook. Nobody is saying that Zeke is a better
Speaker 3: player than Dalvin Cook. But they're not gonna pay Dalvin
Speaker 3: Cook eight million dollars a year when they have Ramondre
Speaker 3: Stevenson on the team. It's a waste of money. It
Speaker 3: doesn't make any sense. So they're gonna pay Zeke half
Speaker 3: that a quarter or that maybe even to come in
Speaker 3: here and be a veteran backup to Remandre, which is
Speaker 3: what they really need. I feel like these running backs
Speaker 3: are out there because the market is devalued the position
Speaker 3: and people are lost their minds and forgotten that Ramondre
Speaker 3: Stevenson is still a damn good back on the Patriots.
Speaker 3: He's better than Dalvin Cook at this stage potentially.
Speaker 1: So if they're closed, it's negligible, yeah, or if cooks better,
Speaker 1: it's negligent, right, So why.
Speaker 3: You know whatever? I know, it's just money, but it
Speaker 3: just doesn't that's not how they're gonna.
Speaker 1: I I did a poll like when Cook first got whatever,
Speaker 1: it was like a month ago, month and a half ago,
Speaker 1: and I did you know running back A and Andre's
Speaker 1: numbers running back beat Cooks numbers from last year included
Speaker 1: the age ninety something percent of people took Romondra.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, so I I feel the same way about that.
Speaker 3: I think Zeke makes the most sense for role contract.
Speaker 3: What they need that guy ideally to do I think
Speaker 3: it's gonna piss off a lot of fantasy football owners
Speaker 3: because they he might be the goal line back and
Speaker 3: steal all over Mandre's touchdowns.
Speaker 1: Well, no, we've been getting asked for months.
Speaker 3: Who should I hit cup with Ramandre Stevenson? Who should
Speaker 3: I hit?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: Draft?
Speaker 1: Be a very easy one. Somebody in my buddies lead.
Speaker 1: He already sends me the draft. I don't care if
Speaker 1: he sends me the draft. Somebody actually drafted Zeke in
Speaker 1: like the tenth round.
Speaker 3: Oh there you go? Uh? Any interested in Jonah Williams?
Speaker 3: Jonah Yeah, Joan Williams Bengals. Oh tackle? I don't know
Speaker 3: the Alabama guy? I know?
Speaker 1: I I well, because they worked out Remember they worked
Speaker 1: out Damian Williams. The running backs like Darryl Henderson, Daryl Henderson.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know. I was thinking that Damian Wims.
Speaker 3: It's like a camp everybody in theory. Yes.
Speaker 1: I actually don't think the Bengals are gonna trade him.
Speaker 3: He's he's apparently second team reps.
Speaker 1: I know he is, but the Bengals don't need picks.
Speaker 1: The Bengals are trying Joe Burrow's on his rookie deal.
Speaker 1: The Bengals need to win a Super Bowl right now,
Speaker 1: and having an extra starting tackle, Like, if you lose
Speaker 1: one of your tackles, you're still in great shape. If
Speaker 1: I'm the Bengals and I'm trading him, I'm trading him
Speaker 1: for a player. I'm trading for a player that's gonna
Speaker 1: help me win immediately. And the Patriots can't exactly afford
Speaker 1: to part waves with those So I just I like.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I mean, I have a great example
Speaker 3: off the top of.
Speaker 1: If I'm the Bengals, I'm called like in the Patriots call,
Speaker 1: I'm asking about Josh who cham asking about Kyle Dugar.
Speaker 1: I'm asking out guys in the last year their contracts, right.
Speaker 1: But if I'm the Bengals, I want to what does
Speaker 1: it pick do for me?
Speaker 3: I want a player? Yeah, I don't know, there might
Speaker 3: be a spot the Patriots have a player that can
Speaker 3: help the Bengals. Like I wanted to segue to defense.
Speaker 3: What if what if White can play and Lawrence Guy's expendable?
Speaker 1: You get if you can get Joan Williams for Lawrence Guy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: sign me up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think that's gonna right there. I don't
Speaker 3: know Okay, I would I would like Jonah Williams. I
Speaker 3: would like that trade really quickly. Just who's the year
Speaker 3: standout on defense? We talked to all offense, but we
Speaker 3: gotta rap.
Speaker 1: Christian Zalz has been really good. All the rookies I
Speaker 1: think have been really good. Yeah, I'll give you kind
Speaker 1: of a sleeper one honestly.
Speaker 3: Oh you know not. Actually, Mac Wilson's been great, and.
Speaker 1: I know I had him off my direction.
Speaker 3: He's been excellent.
Speaker 1: The guy to me that like is getting really interesting
Speaker 1: to watch, and we saw him today. It was as
Speaker 1: big as day Isaiah Bolden, the seventh round pick Jackson.
Speaker 1: And you know Jack Jones obviously had a weird day
Speaker 1: to day, left practice for a significant time. And we
Speaker 1: know that, like Jack Jones, availability is a real question.
Speaker 1: And so people are gonna roll their eyes when I say, well,
Speaker 1: the fourth boundary corner battle, the fourth poundry corner, what
Speaker 1: are you talking about?
Speaker 3: We've done this before. I know they've been snaps and
Speaker 3: the Jason mccordy.
Speaker 1: They want to rotate, right, So who's going to be
Speaker 1: the guy behind Christian Zalz and Jonathan Jones? Right now,
Speaker 1: it looks like it's Isaiah Bolden. He got to go
Speaker 1: against DeVante Parker in elevens and had a really good
Speaker 1: pass per against him, not just like gotten the wave
Speaker 1: an aeron throw, but Parker had the ball in his
Speaker 1: hands and he punched it in. So Isaiah Bolden.
Speaker 3: He's got good ball skills, really.
Speaker 1: Good ball skill, and he's six ' three. So he
Speaker 1: brings some more size to that position, which they need.
Speaker 1: Is an elite athlete.
Speaker 3: So that Isaiah Bolden is to this is he's like
Speaker 3: Juwan Williams, right, like when they drafted the guy in
Speaker 3: the seventh round that actually is the Jowan Williams that
Speaker 3: they wanted. So he would be j C. Jackson in this. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, but I don't know that christians Aalz is bad. No,
Speaker 1: he's not bad, that's true, but it's you know, they
Speaker 1: found a guy like they I think they might have
Speaker 1: found a guy in Yeah, and Isaiah Bolden. I've been
Speaker 1: really impressed with him. I mean that, you know, when
Speaker 1: we get in a joint practice, that's gonna be big
Speaker 1: for him. But great start, Okay, Kyle Duggar, Yeah, we're
Speaker 1: at the point. I said this on PU call. His
Speaker 1: agent put a contract on the table. And let's get
Speaker 1: this thing done. Because this is exactly I know, I've
Speaker 1: seen this before. This is exactly what's gonna happen. They're
Speaker 1: gonna end up having a franchise tag him if they
Speaker 1: don't pay him first.
Speaker 3: Because he's gonna reset the market. He's gonna get a
Speaker 3: massive contract if he hits unrestricted free agency next year,
Speaker 3: a massive contract. And you have two choices. Either get
Speaker 3: out in front of it and you extend him now,
Speaker 3: and maybe you get him at a little bit more
Speaker 3: of a team friendly price because you're giving him the
Speaker 3: money up front, or you roll the dice and you
Speaker 3: tag him in the offseason like that. Those are really
Speaker 3: your only options with him. Yeah, because he's too good
Speaker 3: to let him just walk for nothing. I want to
Speaker 3: hear about the compicks, and he's gonna be way too
Speaker 3: expensive and they probably won't end up paying him, and
Speaker 3: all they'll have to show for it is one hundred
Speaker 3: and tenth pick in the draft, which, like, please, they
Speaker 3: need good players. They don't need one hundred ten pick
Speaker 3: in the draft.
Speaker 1: And to the people who say, well, they drafted Marte
Speaker 1: Mapu maybe to replace him, why not play him together? Right,
Speaker 1: it becomes the mystery box in the boat and then
Speaker 1: what happens when you have to pay Marte Mapu? Are
Speaker 1: you just gonna keep right every point? You gotta you
Speaker 1: gotta invest in something.
Speaker 3: You gotta start building a core, okay, really really quickly. Uh,
Speaker 3: just one thing that people need to know about the
Speaker 3: special lists go.
Speaker 1: So I remember I said I have that weird player
Speaker 1: comp for you. Yeah, Bryce Baringer, Yeah.
Speaker 3: Tim Wakefield.
Speaker 1: What the the way the ball comes off his foot?
Speaker 1: The way the ball comes off his foot is very
Speaker 1: hard for the returners to get a read on. And
Speaker 1: I asked him out yesterday. He said, he can't control it.
Speaker 1: You control it a little bit, yeah, because I never
Speaker 1: like it's Jake Bailey is really good?
Speaker 3: Is it wrapped up? Is Ryland and Bearinger? To me,
Speaker 3: I think it feels like we're getting towards wrapped up territory.
Speaker 3: We're really close.
Speaker 1: You know the in stadium is the big special teams one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but yeah, we're we're really close to having two rookies.
Speaker 3: Ryland has a has a leg has two legs. I think, well,
Speaker 3: thank you. Ryland has some more distance on his kicks
Speaker 3: than I thought.
Speaker 1: I'll look mad out without I could hear it through
Speaker 1: the class.
Speaker 3: God, it's day they Ryland has more of a leg
Speaker 3: than than I thought. He's got a good leg. I
Speaker 3: think he's gonna be I think he's gonna be able
Speaker 3: to make him plus fifty. I do. Yeah, Yeah, he'll
Speaker 3: he'll flirt with that and and Behinger is he's got
Speaker 3: he's got a boomer. Well, the big thing he's got
Speaker 3: a big leg.
Speaker 1: But the big thing is the returners are having trouble
Speaker 1: fielding the ball, and that creates muff punts, and it
Speaker 1: creates you know, guys are maybe more inclined to fair
Speaker 1: catch it, and that that's big. That's field position and
Speaker 1: muff punts is potentially turned.
Speaker 3: There's one part of the podcast that Bill likes. It
Speaker 3: was that thirty seconds of Alex talking about how the
Speaker 3: knuckleball off Bryce Barreinger's giving away season and then it's
Speaker 3: tough to catch and like this is relevant.
Speaker 1: Really quick before we wrap up, there's a question here
Speaker 1: in the chat on YouTube that somebody wants me to
Speaker 1: ask you. Can you answer it real quick?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Does Rowley web get open on that note. I'm
Speaker 3: not even lying. It's in the chat. Answer the question.
Speaker 3: It's in the chat. I'm not lying. It's in here.
Speaker 3: The Revs are playing tonight. Answer the question. Answer the
Speaker 3: question against the third team defense. Yes, all right, that's
Speaker 3: all I wanted. On that note, We're gonna do the
Speaker 3: pod next Wednesday before the preseason game. So we'll talk
Speaker 3: about the camp practices Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and then we'll
Speaker 3: preview the game on Thursday to kind of give you
Speaker 3: guys an idea of who you should be looking for
Speaker 3: and things like that. And so we'll be at this
Speaker 3: time on Wednesday, so don't look for us on Thursday,
Speaker 3: like our usual time will be on Wednesday because of
Speaker 3: the preseason game, and we're almost there. Preseason football starts tonight.
Speaker 3: Hall of Fame Fame game Patriots open preseason. We're going
Speaker 3: to have a Hall of Fame game soon, are we.
Speaker 3: I'd imagine when Brady gets in. Oh yeah, that'd be fun.
Speaker 3: I'll I'll be able to go to that'd be cool.
Speaker 3: All right. Anyways, signing off, Alex Bars, Matt behind the Glass,
Speaker 3: and Evan Lazar here for you. Will see you next Wednesday.
Speaker 3: I almost said Thursday, Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday, y.
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